Blue plaque for man who fought for the poor and brought council housing to Banbury
19/05/2025
The town’s first 40 council houses were built in 1913 in King’s Road
A blue plaque has been unveiled commemorating a Banbury Councillor who fought for the town’s poor and disadvantaged in the early 20th century.
Herbert Payne lived in Queen’s Road, where the plaque was seen for the first time at a ceremony on Saturday.
The Independent Labour Party Town Councillor persuaded the then Banbury Borough Council to invest in building council houses. The first 40 of these were built in King’s Road, adjacent to Payne’s own street. That happened in 1913, long before providing council housing was a legal requirement for Local Authorities.
Payne had a sad life; he was a conscientious objector during the first world war and died in the Warneford Hospital in Oxford following his wartime imprisonment, aged just 40 in 1922.
He was a commanding character, who balanced his family life with his business as a cutlery salesman, and his political campaigning. He was a fine open-air speaker, nicknamed the ‘Cow Fair Roarer’ – the Cow Fair now being the part of Bridge Street in front of the Town Hall.
The plaque was erected by the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board, with funding provided by Banbury Town Council and Banbury Civic Society. It was unveiled by former Town Councillor and local amateur historian Steve Kilsby, who re-discovered Herbert Payne’s contribution to the town.
Mr Kilsby said: “It was a pure fluke that a reading of the relatively obscure book about radicalism in Banbury, ‘Over the Hills to Glory’ by John Hodgkins, led my wife and I to investigate Herbert Payne and his achievements, leading directly to an application to the Blue Plaques Board for recognition of him.
“Herbert Payne could so easily have been forgotten by the world, but the installation of a blue plaque should now, we hope, ensure that at least some people will now remember him and his achievements.”
The current residents of Payne’s former home, Ruth and Ceri, said: “We were thrilled to discover that our house was the home of such a fascinating and inspiring man as Herbert Payne. We are very happy to have a plaque commemorating him, to add to the rich social history of this part of Banbury and of Queens Road residents down the years.”
Published: by the Banbury FM News Team
