In his 2014 article for the village newsletter, Keith Sinfield considered the issues that affected Church Lawford during the latter years of the 20th Century.
Unlike the previous articles, which dealt with the effects of the two world wars, there are no cataclysmic events to report in this period at least none that affected Church Lawford directly. The post-war boom (and bust!) was well under way and, overall, it was a period of rising living standards. Such changes that came about predominantly concerned housing (increased home ownership) and mobility (increased car ownership); these, we will see, greatly influenced how the village developed.
Thus, in the 1960s we had: a post office & shop, plant nursery, the garage, public house and a brand new school. The closure and subsequent demolition of the old school in the early 1970s gave birth to ‘The School Houses Charity’. This charity, established in 1980, disburses the income from a portion of the proceeds from the sale of land on which the old school once stood. Under the terms of the charity, those residing in our two parishes may apply for modest grants to further religious or general education.
The new school originally functioned as both infant and junior school, taking children aged 5 to 11 years. After only seven years, however, it was re-designated as a ‘First School’ and pupils’ ages then ranged from 5 to 8 years. Redesignation thus reduced pupil intake by approximately 40% and heralded a decline in the school’s fortunes. The local authority was to make various attempts to close the school. The first of these came in 1989, but was withdrawn in 1991 following vehement local apposition. The final proposal came in 1994 and, in spite of local opposition, was enacted in 1996. The buildings remained empty for a number of years after closure. During this time a small band of people from both villages formed an action group to investigate options for making good the community benefits lost by closing the village school. Purchase and renovation of the buildings was considered, but deemed too expensive. Finally, a plan to renovate/ redevelop the old Reading Room was adopted but this was later abandoned in favour of complete demolition and wholesale replacement by a new village hall. The school buildings, too, were demolished and the site sold for private housing, giving rise to the Townsend Close development (the name of which was chosen to maintain a connection with the Townsend family, benefactors of the Reading Room), Meanwhile, the action group persuaded the County Council to allow the parish council to purchase the former school sports field for use by the community for general recreational purposes.
In the 1980s and 90s increased car ownership meant that more shopped at the local supermarkets. The village shop’s customers became those, such as the elderly, who would shop daily for relatively small amounts. The loss of the school, however, was the final nail in the coffin, in as much as parents dropping off or picking up children from school had formed part of its trade. The shop eventually closed, although the post office remained open for a time before, finally, it too was forced to close. On the brighter side, in 1985 the county council converted what had previously been a highways department depot, in Limestone Hall Lane, to Warwickshire’s first rural business centre. This gave a spur to local small businesses and later was to become the home of cabinet makers to the Queen, N.E.J. Stevenson Ltd.
The most significant changes in Church Lawford, those that have had the greatest visual impact, have come about through house building / redevelopment. Piecemeal development took place in the mid-to-late 1950s and 60s. By 1964 most of the village’s thatched cottages had been demolished and replaced with more substantial houses of brick and tiled roof construction. The village’s sole remaining thatched cottages in Green Lane, however, still provide a flavour of bygone days. Elsewhere, in Smithy Lane and Church Road, there are houses dating from the same period which have over the years been restored/ renovated, and still retain an 18th C appearance It is interesting to note that these were sited directly at the roadside and therefore lacked front gardens. Land at the rear or side of these houses was provided though probably not for the growing of flowers, but food, a more essential undertaking in 18th C life.
Large scale housing development took place in the late 1990s. The Airey Houses, declared unfit for habitation, were demolished and replaced by a mixed development of council-owned, shared equity and private housing; thus giving rise to Fitzalan Close, Dalton Close (named after the 18th/19,h C clockmaker) and the revamped portion of King’s Newnham Road.
So, by the year 2000 most of Church Lawford’s community services had declined or disappeared. Of those we had at the beginning of this period, only the public house and the plant nursery remained beyond the early years of the new millennium.