Culworth Road entrance lodge to Eydon Hall.
Postcard, marked 'Eydon - 16' in white, probably by Frank Packer of Chipping Norton. Lodge show before later changes and extensions. This would be the house, without water or electricity, that Fritz Schumacher and his family stayed in during WW2. Fritz was an economist who fled German just before the start of the War. He was initially interred but thanks to Robert (later Lord) Brand at Eydon Hall, he was allowed to live in Eydon. He was not allowed to work as an economist however, but spent his time working as a labourer on Eydon Hall farm. His time in Eydon changed his views on rural redevelopment, previously he had thought that all that was needed was access to credit for people to get started on small holdings. However, after working here he was convinced that the best rural brains all left for the town so schemes to generate work in the countryside would be needed. (He spent one Spring rebuilding walls brought down by the frost. When he suggested that if they made the mortar stronger, the walls would not fall down, he was told that they couldn't use more lime as it would be difficult to get off the stone in they did fall down.) They initially met with some hostility in the village, but after a couple of public meetings to let off steam, things quietened down. Fritz Schumacher went on to write "Small is Beautiful- Economics as if People Mattered", a seminal text in the founding of the Sustainable Development movement and to found the Intermediate Technology Development Group. See also KL010
Photographer: Mr Frank Packer
Image lent by : Peter and Joyce Mossop
Connected Photos: KL049 | KL050 | KL051 | KL048 | KL010