Crichel Down affair
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The Crichel Down affair was a British political scandal of 1954, with a disproportionate subsequent effect and notoriety. The resignation of the government minister Sir Thomas Dugdale has been taken as setting a precedent on ministerial responsibility, even though the doctrine supposed to arise from the affair is only partially supported by the details. Lord Carrington, Dugdale's junior minister, offered his resignation but was told to stay on.
The case centred on 725 acres of agricultural land at Crichel Down, near Long Crichel, owned by a Commander Marten and purchased in 1938 by the Air Ministry. This was for bombing practice for the Royal Air Force. The purchase price when it was requisitioned was £12,006. In 1941 Winston Churchill gave a promise in Parliament that the land would be returned to its owners, after World War II. This promise was not honoured. Instead the land (then valued at £21,000) was handed over to the ministry of Agriculture who vastly increased the cost of the land beyond the amount the original owners could afford (£32,000), and leased it out.
In 1949 the original owners began a campaign for a return sale of the land, and gained an inquiry. With much publicity, an eventual report was damning about actions in the case by those acting for the Government. Archive material later released caused some shift in interpretation.
The Crichel Down Rules are guidelines applying to compulsory purchase drawn up in the light of the affair.
