Six decades of helping to preserve best of Henley

SIXTY years ago, a group of Henley residents banded together to save the Catherine Wheel Hotel from development.

After successfully overturning a decision to turn the Hart Street hotel into shops and garages, they launched the Henley Society.

The group, which aims to preserve and improve the town, was officially formed on December 6, 1961 at the town hall in Market Place.

Now it is planning to hold a series of events to mark the anniversary and chairman Geoff Luckett has put together a 72-page book about the history of the
society.

He says: “I don’t know whether we would call 60 years an achievement as such but as long as we have keen committee members the society will go on.

“We hope it goes on for another 60 years or more but this cannot be achieved without a keen, supportive and hard-working committee — we don’t do it for our own glorification, it’s for the good of the town.”

Over the years the society has been involved in a range of initiatives, including campaigning for a weight restriction on Henley Bridge, volunteering as car park attendants during the coronavirus pandemic and donating to the Kenton for Keeps appeal.

However, its most important role has been engaging in the planning process, in the tradition of its origins, by commenting on hundreds of applications.

After the society helped save the Catherine Wheel, which is now a
J D Wetherspoon pub, it was asked for its views on other applications by Oxfordshire County Council, which was the planning authority until 1974 when South Oxfordshire District Council was formed.

During its first decade the society had many successes, including preventing Baltic Cottage in Bell Street being turned into nine maisonettes and 27 flats.

It also influenced a decision to reject the development of “low-type” buildings at Friar Park, which was bought by Beatles guitarist George Harrison in 1970, the year the Fab Four broke up.

Members also managed to have several trees put on the preservation list and sat on the committee to help restore the Kenton Theatre in New Street. The society was also registered as a charity. During the Seventies, the society partnered with Henley Town Council to raise money for tree planting on Fair Mile with a total of £4,000 being donated by its members. Trees were also planted at the King’s Road and Greys Road car parks.

The society successfully campaigned against a proposed petrol station at Phyllis Court Club and a permanent grandstand on the Berkshire bank of the river.

It also opposed plans for a “national rowing museum” in Mill Meadows due to the “loss of a large area of open space” but this went ahead and the River & Rowing Museum, as it came to be called, was opened by the Queen in 1998.

Over the decade membership increased to 550 and the society had a then record £1,000 in funds.

In the Eighties, the society supported proposals to demolish the old Regal Cinema to make way for a new Waitrose store.

Five members who were against the plans resigned in protest but the proposal was dropped due to the economic recession only to be delivered some years later.

In the Nineties the Duke of Kent became president of the society as he lived in Crocker End, near
Nettlebed.

The society unsuccessfully opposed plans to the build the Tesco supermarket in Reading Road and once again called for the cinema to be demolished and the Waitrose to be built.

Tesco submitted a planning application in 1990 when it was rumoured that the town council
had entered into a binding contract to grant a lease of the site for
£6 million.

The society opposed the application because it was contrary to the draft 1970 town plan and the 1990 draft plan.

It said the development would intrude on the open countryside, increase traffic congestion, cause loss of trade at town centre shops and set a precedent for further commercial development along Reading Road.

However, as many residents were keen to have a second supermarket, the society suggested that an alternative site be sought.

 A town poll was held in which just over 20 per cent of the electorate voted, with about two-thirds in favour of the proposal. 

The district council rejected the application due to the likely effect on small shops in the town centre but Tesco appealed and won.

By the end of the Nineties, society members had begun questioning what the organisation stood for, whether those aims were stated clearly enough in public reports and what it was actually doing to improve Henley.

An executive committee meeting noted that the society had been “born out of a protest and was a campaigning body” and it was agreed that this should be given greater emphasis in future.

However members were still questioning what was being done to “sell” the group to them. A membership working group was formed with the aim of increasing the membership and coming up with proposals to bring the society’s name to the fore.

Over the next two decades the society continued to offer its views on planning applications.

It was in favour of the pedestrianisation of Market Place — an issue which has returned this year — and donated £2,000 to the Kenton for Keeps appeal, which was launched in 2010.

In recent years, it has objected to the change of name of the Red Lion Hotel to The Relais and against plans for a Premier Inn in the station car park.

It also successfully lobbied the town council to restore the slipway at the bottom of Friday Street after this was concreted over and has refurbished 19 Victorian street signs in the town.

Members also helped supervise the car park at the Bell and Hart surgeries during the coronavirus vaccination programme.

Mr Luckett says: “Over the years the society has been through several ups and downs and it did go very quiet for a long time but now we are very active and well-financed.

“We have a great interest in the town and preserving what we believe is the best of Henley and improving the rest.

“Planning has always been a major part of our activity and we have continued that. We look at thousands of applications a year and the majority go through with no issues.

“The society has always been keen to give to the town. In fact, in the first year of its existence it gave a new St George’s flag to St Mary’s Church.

“Recently, we cleaned up all the street signs which are a part of Henley’s history, and we’ve campaigned to have the toilets in Greys Road car park improved, which is finally happening. We have monthly meetings and we make decisions and get things done.”

The society currently has more than 580 members, including eight who sit on the executive committee.

Mr Luckett, who joined the society in 2017, says he had four aims when he became chairman in 2020.

They were to:

• Increase the membership

• Make the society better known

• Keep members informed

• Reinvigorate the society.

“It’s a lot different now with a very keen committee and there’s a lot more enthusiasm,” says Mr Luckett.

“We used to have a newsletter once a year but now we have a monthly one and members are getting more proactive in making suggestions to the committee.

“We had tremendous success with our recruitment drive last summer — we had 253 new people. The applications were flying through my door like confetti.

“I think we were so successful because during lockdown people realised the value of where they live.”

One of his proudest moments was the renovation of the street signs after he saw a comment on Facebook saying it was “a pity” they were in such a poor condition.

Mr Luckett says: “I saw that post and thought, ‘You know what? That’s exactly the kind of thing the society should be involved in. I talked to the committee and we had an idea of how much it would cost. I got the committee to pay for the first three signs and then the responsibility fell on me to raise the rest of the money to do the remaining signs, which was about £8,000.

“I wouldn’t say it was easy to get the money but we did it and we were able to cover the whole cost of the project. That pleased me as much as anything.”

It took him just under a year to write the book, which is called The Henley Society…The First 60 Years and was printed by Higgs Group, publisher of the Henley Standard.

Mr Luckett says: “I had no clue about what the society had done in the past, so I got all the records and put them in chronological order. We had AGM minutes going back 60 years and a number of newsletters.

“I started writing in the first lockdown and finished in the last one. I wouldn’t be able to tell you how much time I spent on it altogether. Judy Clinton did all the layouts and design and I got it proofread by two people and we made changes.

“Finally, the weekend before I sent it to print, I went through it again and found 54 mistakes.

“We were very fortunate that one of our members, Rosemary Hardie, paid for the print costs.”

To buy a copy of the book (£8), call 07860 145982 or email
thehenleysociety@btinternet.com

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, the Henley Society is holding a number of talks throughout the year.

These include one by David Barber, the Queen’s swan marker, who lives in Henley, on Wednesday, March 2.

There will also be a “music on the lawn” event at the Remenham Club on Sunday, August 7 which will have a Beatles theme as this year is also the 60th anniversary of the group’s first hit, Love Me Do.

There is also likely to be a Christmas event at the Catherine Wheel in early December.

For more information, visit www.thehenleysociety.org