Bibliography - Dr. John Douglas Godfrey M.A., D.Phil.
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Arundel: A history of town and castle reviewed, by John Godfrey, published April 1994 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 53, article, p.18) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/53] & The Keep [LIB/500483]

The ownership, occupation and use of land on the South Downs between the rivers Arun and Adur in West Sussex, c1840-c1940., by John Douglas Godfrey, 1999 at Sussex University (Ph.D. thesis) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

This thesis reports on a study of land ownership, land occupation and land use in an area of about 100 square miles on the South Downs in Sussex at three points in time. The thesis is based on a study of three principal sets of records, occasionally supplemented by other material. The study area comprises the area covered by 16 contiguous modern parishes between the rivers Arun and Adur. The study covers the period c.1840-1940 and the three principal sets of records examined are the Tithe Surveys of 1834-47, the Valuation Office Survey of 1910-15 and the National Farm Survey of 1941-43. The study, which focuses on medium and large holdings, describes the structure of land ownership, land occupation and land use in the selected area, making use of significant material which has only recently become available and has not previously been studied, and enables trends to be identified relating to such issues as the changing fortunes of landowning families, the balance between owner-occupation and tenant farming, farm size, the balance between pasture and arable, agricultural improvement and the progress and efficiency of measures such as the wartime plough-up campaigns. These trends are discussed in a regional and national context, referring to research undertaken elsewhere and to available national material. The study also identifies problems which may arise from the inter-relating of the three documentary sources, all of which were designed for separate purposes (tithe commutation, taxing of land values, Second World War food production campaign and post-war planning), and it proposes solutions to these problems which may be of value to future researchers.

Local Government in the 19th and 20th Centuries, by John Godfrey, published 1 January 1999 in An Historical Atlas of Sussex (pp.126-127, Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, ISBN-10: 1860771122 & ISBN-13: 9781860771125) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14026][Lib 18777] & The Keep [LIB/501686][LIB/508903] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The ownership, occupation and use of land on the South Downs, 1840-1940: a methodological analysis of record linkage over time, by John Godfrey and Brian Short, published 2001 in Agricultural History Review (vol. 49, no. 1, article, pp.56-78)   Download PDF

Three major complexes of documents are now available for the study of agriculture from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. The tithe surveys, already well known, are now joined by the Lloyd George 1910 Valuation Office material, and the National Farm Survey of 1941-3. This paper expl ores the methodological issues arising from the use, and especially the comparison, of the three sources in the context of a case study from the South Downs in Sussex.

The Outhwaite Controversy, by John Godfrey, published Spring 2001 in West Sussex History, the Journal of West Sussex Archives Society (no. 67, article, p.33) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 16404/67] & The Keep [LIB/500491]

Land ownership and farming on the South Downs in West Sussex circa 1840-1940, by John Godfrey, published 2002 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 140, article, pp.113-123) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15109] & The Keep [LIB/500299] & S.A.S. library   View Online

An examination of the tithe surveys of the 1840s, the Lloyd George 1910 Valuation Office material and the National Farm Survey of 1941?43 relating to the 100 square miles of the South Downs between the rivers Arun and Adur enables a picture to be built up of the way the land was owned and farmed during a century of rapid agricultural and social change. The study confirms the importance of large landowners in the West Sussex downland and the position of the study area as the natural habitat of the close parish, with land in few hands and the rural population small, deferential and conservative politically. In addition, changes over time and in the fortunes of individual families are discussed, as are changes in the size of holdings and the growth of owner-occupation. Finally, changes in land-use are described, with particular attention being drawn to the changing balance between arable and pasture on farms in the study area, the abandonment of remote farmsteads and the importance of mineral working and forestry. As the Second World War approached, military use also became important.

"The Outhwaite controversy": a micro-history of the Edwardian land campaign, by Brian Short and John Godfrey, published January 2007 in The Journal of Historical Geography (vol. 33 issue 1, article, pp.45-71)   View Online

The concept of micro-history has not yet been well explored within historical geography. This paper employs the idea but with a more overtly spatial emphasis, by relating the national discourse surrounding the land question in Edwardian Britain to one of its local manifestations. In particular, we consider the attacks made by the radical 'single-taxer' Liberal MP R.L. Outhwaite upon the Duke of Norfolk and his estate at Arundel, Sussex. Outhwaite levelled charges of feudal land monopoly leading to poor housing and rural depopulation on the Duke's Sussex estate, and contrasted this with the wealth being transferred from the Duke's extensive properties in Sheffield to reconstruct the castle at Arundel. The Duke and his agent, Mostyn, responded fiercely to the allegations. This local struggle for political power and capital is set against the wider situation during the tense years leading up to the Great War. The intersection between the two scales of enquiry demonstrates how the national level of political debate became more complex and fractured at the local level, how actors at the local level were also moving on wider stages, and the interconnecting processes. Further questions about the utility of micro-history are raised as a result.

The Duke and the radical: an Edwardian land conflict in Sussex, by John Godfrey and Brian Short, published 2010 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 148, article, pp.225-246) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18613] & The Keep [LIB/500366] & S.A.S. library   View Online

Between 1908 and 1913 the radical Australian politician R. L. Outhwaite carried out a sustained campaign of criticism of the 15th Duke of Norfolk, as part of a wider attack upon landed wealth by Lloyd George and some other Liberal MPs and their supporters. Papers preserved in the Arundel Castle Archives, together with a wide range of other contemporary sources, make it possible to trace the chronology and rationale of Outhwaite's attack, together with the defence, which was mounted primarily by Edward Mostyn, the duke's loyal and influential Arundel agent. The national context of this acrimonious debate between these three men is traced, and the local society and economy of the Arundel estate in the years before the Great War are also analysed.

Landscapes of War and Peace: Sussex, the South Downs and the Western Front 1914-18, by John Godfrey, published 2014 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 152, article) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 18617] & The Keep [LIB/508097] & S.A.S. library   View Online

This article explores how and to what extent an attachment to the localities and landscapes of the county of Sussex (and in particular the chalk landscapes of the South Downs) motivated and sustained soldiers of the Royal Sussex Regiment fighting on the Western Front during the First World War. It discusses the significance of locality and landscape as creations of the mind, and explores the origins and significance of the concept of 'the South Country' in the development of notions of England and Englishness in the years immediately before the First World War. The relevant history of the Royal Sussex Regiment is discussed, and 12 soldiers who fought with the Regiment on the Western Front, and whose letters, diaries or memoirs survive, are introduced. The article comments on the nature of these records and their reliability for historical research purposes. It analyses how, and to what extent, these men were motivated in their decisions to enlist in the Regiment and then to endure the conditions of 20th-century warfare by thoughts of their homes in Sussex and the localities and landscapes with which they were familiar in their civilian lives, and the significance of these motivating factors compared with others, such as patriotism, comradeship and ambition. The article concludes that considerations of locality and landscape were material in motivating these 12 soldiers to enlist and to endure, although other factors are probably equally important in understanding their motivations.