Heather Archive

Acc No 7308

Given by Councillor H Owen Heather of 112 Warren Crescent, Luton, LU2 7JT with the permission of the Labour Group

Councillor Heather's Archive is part of a growing body of material relating to the Labour Party in Bedfordshire. Z 790/1-2 are the minutes and correspondence of the County Council Labour Party, 1980-1993. The County Council Labour Group comprised members of the County Council accepting the Labour Whip. Although this was a period when the party was out of power nationally, the Labour Party was often the largest party on Bedfordshire County Council. The strains imposed on the Group by never having a working majority come out in the documents deposited here. Useful material on the Group's view on Education (both Harpur Trust places and Opting out), by-passes and pedestrianisation, internal Group discipline and relations with the Liberal Group are contained in it.

The County Labour Party covered party members living in Bedfordshire [Z 790/3]. As such, with a different composition from the County Council Labour Group, the two did not necessarily see matters from quite the same perspective. A number of the issues discussed at County Labour Party are the same as those discussed at County Council Labour Group.

The Bedford Divisional Labour Party's Archive is concerned with the Constituency Labour Party. Its records date back to 1919 (X 494). In the same archive are records of the Labour Group on North Bedfordshire Borough Council. The archive also contains a valuable series of scrapbooks of newspaper cuttings from the 1970's and photocopies of Bedfordshire Pioneer, a Christian Socialist paper running from 1950-1952.

The Len Holden Archive (X 819) supplements much of the material in X 494. Papers concerning Parliamentary and Council elections including election leaflets and Ward results form an important part of the archive. As well as being a Labour Councillor and activist, Len is a historian. Papers of the Labour History Group and tapes of interviews of J. Skeffington-Lodge and Alderman Ken Scott have been deposited by him.

Luton Co-operative Party records 1935-1968 (X 639) and a minute book of Luton Young Socialists [Z 661/1] have been deposited in the Record Office.