Broadmayne & West Knighton Conservative Branch

A feature of village community life is the existence of groups organised for specific purposes. Whilst politics is kept at low key, with the aim at parish council meetings to focus on the community priorities, nevertheless branches of political groups do exist, and over a period of at least twenty years the Broadmayne and West Knighton Branch of the Conservative Association has been part of village life.

Membership over the years has been small but active, so active in a period before the 1970s that the Branch acquired land on which the former village hall stood in Main Street. When plans for a new hall were being drawn up in the 1980s the village was looking for some finance as their contribution towards the cost. To help the village the Conservative Branch, having received £12,500 from the sale of the land in Main Street donated £7,500 towards the cost of the new village hall, a public spirited gesture. Out of interest earned from the balance invested, the Branch donated two amounts of £250, one to Broadmayne PC and the other to Knightsford PC, to cover the cost of provision of two seats for use by the public.

The Branch continues to function albeit at a low membership level and arranges talks by local and MPs and MEPs so that villagers have an opportunity to be updated on national and European issues. Whilst the nature of government, both local and central, may change and political issues similarly wax and wane, it is likely that the Branch will continue to be part of the village community.

David Crowhurst