Britain’s Titled Fascists
The British countryside of the 1930s was a happy hunting ground for the British Union of Fascists, where recruits sometimes came with titles and estates.
The northwest of Norfolk is farmers’ country, cereal and pig country, a fertile wide green wedge at the angle of sea and fen. It was here that Viscount ‘Turnip’ Townshend pioneered four-field crop rotation in the 18th century. Grey partridge and turtle dove still do all right here, for all that this is shooting country, too. (‘Spirits of well-shot woodcock, partridge, snipe/Flutter and bear him up the Norfolk sky’, wrote John Betjeman on the death of George V – the king died at Sandringham). And it is a landscape of grand estates: Sandringham, Houghton, Holkham, Raynham, and more. Northwest Norfolk is also aristocrat country.
To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription, available from only £5.
Start my trial subscription now
If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.
Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems.
