RAF Chelveston
Royal Air Force Chelveston or more RAF Chelveston is a former Royal Air Force station located on the south side of the A645, 5 miles east of Wellingborough, near the village of Chelveston in Northamptonshire, England. During the Second World War the airfield was occupied by both the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces, it was given the USAAF designation Station 105. During the Cold War, Chelveston housed some flying units, however its main role was that of a readiness station to receive USAF units from the United States in case of an emergency. In the mid-1970s, the majority of the airfield was sold by the Ministry of Defence to private landholders, with the exception of a military housing area occupied by U. S. servicemembers assigned to RAF Molesworth. Construction of Chelveston began in 1940 with short grass runways and three hangars grouped together; the airfield opened in August 1941 as a RAF station. It was first used for the Central Gunnery School the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment took over with its gliders.
However, the grass landing strips were deemed unsuitable for heavy 4-engine bombers, so concrete runways were constructed along with taxiways and hardstands. The airfield was upgraded to Class A airfield standards before being used by the U. S. Eighth Air Force as a heavy bomber airfield. USAAF Station Units assigned to RAF Chelveston were: 442d Sub-Depot 18th Weather Squadron 2d Station Complement Squadron 1059th Military Police Company 1632nd Ordnance Supply & Maintenance Company 876th Chemical Company 2030th Engineer Fire Fighting Platoon 5th Mobile Training Unit 309th Medical Dispensary In early 1942, Chelveston was turned over to the American Eighth Air Force; the first USAAF unit to occupy Chelveston was the 60th Troop Carrier Group. The 60th consisted of the 11th, 12th and 26th squadrons, equipped with 53 C-47 aircraft; the 60th arrived in early July, but its stay was brief, moving to RAF Aldermaston at the end of the month. After its training in the UK, the unit moved on to the 12th Air Force for operations in the Mediterranean theater.
On 9 August 1942, the 301st Bombardment Group took up residence on the station. The 301st was assigned to the 1st Combat Wing at Brampton Grange, its operational squadrons were the 32d, 352d, 353d, 354th and 415th Bomb Squadrons, each equipped with Boeing B-17F Flying Fortresses. The unit was the second heavy USAAF bomber group, it flew its first operational mission on 5 September 1942 to the Rouen marshalling yards in northern France. During its stay at Chelveston, the unit attacked submarine pens, railroads and other targets on the Continent in France; the 301st BG was allocated to Operation Torch, on 26 November 1942 it departed for the Twelfth Air Force, being moved to Tafaraoui Airfield, Algeria. The next group to use Chelveston was the 305th Bombardment Group, moving in from RAF Grafton Underwood in December 1942; the 305th Bomb Group was one of the most decorated USAAF bomb groups in the European Theater. The 305th BG was assigned to the 40th Combat Wing at RAF Thurleigh; the group tail code was a "Triangle G".
Its operational squadrons were the 364th, 365th, 366th and 422d Bomb Squadrons, each equipped with B-17Fs upgraded to the B-17G in 1944. During the winter of 1942/43, the 305th was commanded by Colonel Curtis LeMay and pioneered many of the techniques of daylight bombing used by the USAAF over Nazi-controlled Europe; these fundamental procedures and techniques were adapted to the Boeing B-29 Superfortress which fought the war to its conclusion in the Pacific. The 305th BG bombed the navy yards at Wilhelmshaven on 27 January 1943 when heavy bombers of Eighth AF made their first penetration into Germany. Through mid-1943, the group attacked strategic targets as submarine pens, harbours, motor works, marshalling yards in France and the Low Countries; the 305th BG received the Distinguished Unit Citation for a mission on April 1943 when an industrial target in Paris was bombed with precision in spite of pressing enemy fighter attacks and heavy flak. During the second half of 1943, the unit began deeper penetration into enemy territory to strike heavy industry.
Significant objectives included aluminum and nitrate works in Norway, industries in Berlin, oil plants at Merseburg, aircraft factories at Anklam, shipping at Gdynia, ball-bearing works at Schweinfurt. First Lieutenant William R Lawley Jr and 1st Lt Edward S Michael, pilots in the 364th Bomb Squadron, each received the Medal of Honor for similar performances on 20 February and 11 April 1944, respectively. In each case a B-17 was damaged by fighters after it had bombed a target in Germany, crew members were wounded, the pilot himself was critically injured. A second Distinguished Unit Citation was awarded to the 305th for withstanding severe opposition to bomb aircraft factories in central Germany on 11 January 1944; the unit participated in the intensive campaign of heavy bombers against the German aircraft industry during Big Week, 20–25 February 1944. In addition to bombardment of strategic targets, the 305th BG flew tactical interdictory missions and supported infantry units. Prior to the Normandy invasion in June 1944, it helped to neutralize enemy installations such as V-weapon sites and repair shops.
On D-Day, 6 June, the unit bombed enemy strongholds near the battle area. During the Battle of Normandy the 305th attacked enemy posi
Ashton, East Northamptonshire
Ashton is a village and civil parish about ¾ mile east of Oundle in the east of the English county of Northamptonshire forming part of the district of East Northamptonshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 219. Ashton was re-built in 1900 by the Rothschild family for estate workers. Since 1965 it has hosted the World Conker Championship traditionally on the second Sunday of October; this is now held between nearby Polebrook. The village is the birthplace of Dame Miriam Rothschild author. In 1952 George and Lillian Peach were murdered at their home in the village; the crime remains unsolved. Ashton Wold was built in 1900 for the Honourable Charles Rothschild; the architect was William Huckvale and the house is in the Tudor style. Many of the cottages in the village were designed by Huckvale. Two more cottages were added in 1945 in the same style; the cottages are Tudor style and thatched. All of the buildings the village are Grade II or II* listed; the Creed Chapel and adjacent school building date from the manor house from the 15th century.
Listed Buildings in Ashton, England from British Listed Buildings website A short history of Ashton and the Rothschild Family from the Estate website Details of the World Conker Championship organised by Ashton Conker Club A short history of the village and the pub from the Chequered Skipper website Ashton in the Domesday Book The Parish Church of Oundle with Ashton
Henry Chichele
Henry Chichele, was Archbishop of Canterbury and founded All Souls College, Oxford. Chichele was born at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, in 1363 or 1364, he was the third and youngest son of Thomas Chicheley, who appears in 1368 in still extant town records of Higham Ferrers, as a suitor in the mayor's court, in 1381–1382, again in 1384–1385, was mayor: in fact, for a dozen years he and Henry Barton, schoolmaster of Higham Ferrers grammar school, one Richard Brabazon, filled the mayoralty in turns. Chichele's occupation does not appear but his eldest son, William, is on the earliest extant list of the Grocers' Company, London. On 9 June 1405 Chichele was admitted, to a burgage in Higham Ferrers, his mother, Agnes Pincheon, is said to have been of gentle birth. There is therefore no foundation in fact for the account that Henry Chichele, as a poor ploughboy "eating his scanty meal off his mother's lap", was picked up by William of Wykeham; this story was unknown to Arthur Duck, Fellow of All Souls, who wrote Chichele's life in 1617.
The first recorded appearance of Chichele himself is at New College, Oxford, as Checheley, eighth among the undergraduate fellows, in July 1387, in the earliest extant hall-book, which contains weekly lists of those dining in Hall. It is clear from Chichele's position in the list, with eleven fellows and eight scholars, or probationer fellows, below him, that this entry does not mark his first appearance in the college, going on since 1375 at least, was chartered in 1379, he must have come from Winchester College in one of the earliest batches of scholars from that college, the sole feeder of New College, not from St John Baptist College, Winchester, as guessed by Dr William Hunt in the Dict. Nat. Biog. to cover the mistaken supposition that St Mary's College was not founded till 1393. St Mary's College was in fact formally founded in 1382, the school had been going on since 1373, while no such college as St John's College at Winchester existed. Chichele appears in the Hall-books of New College up to the year 1392/93, when he was a B.
A. and was absent for ten weeks from about 6 December to 6 March for the purpose of his ordination as a sub-deacon, performed by the bishop of Derry, acting as suffragan to the bishop of London. He was already beneficed, receiving a royal ratification of his estate as parson of Llanvarchell in the diocese of St Asaph on 20 March 1391/92. In the Hall-book, marked 1393/94, but for 1394/95, Chicheley's name does not appear, he had left Oxford and gone up to London to practise as an advocate in the principal ecclesiastical court, the Court of Arches. His rise was rapid. On 8 February 1395/96 he was, on a commission with several knights and clerks to hear an appeal in a case of John Molton, Esquire v. John Shawe, citizen of London, from Sir John Cheyne kt. sitting for the constable of England in a court of chivalry. Like other ecclesiastical lawyers and civil servants of the day Chichele was paid with ecclesiastical preferments. On 13 April 1396, he obtained ratification of the parsonage of St Stephen's, presented on 30 March by the abbot of Colchester, no doubt through his brother Robert, who restored the church and increased its endowment.
In 1397 he was made archdeacon of Dorset by Richard Mitford, bishop of Salisbury, but litigation was still going on about it in the papal court until 27 June 1399, when the pope extinguished the suit, imposing perpetual silence on Nicholas Bubwith, master of the rolls, his opponent. In the first year of Henry IV Chicheley was parson of Sherston and prebendary of Nantgwyly in the college of Abergwilly, Wales; this year Chichele's brother Robert was senior sheriff of London. On 7 May 1404, Pope Boniface IX provided him to a prebend at Lincoln, notwithstanding he held prebends at Salisbury, Lichfield, St Martins-le-Grand and Abergwyly, the living of Brington. On 9 January 1405 he found time to attend a court at Higham Ferrers and be admitted to a burgage there. In July 1405 Chicheley began a diplomatic career by a mission to the new Roman Pope Innocent VII, professing his desire to end the schism in the papacy by resignation, if his French rival at Avignon would do likewise. Next year, on 5 October 1406, he was sent with Sir John Cheyne to Paris to arrange a lasting peace and the marriage of Prince Henry with the French princess Marie, frustrated by her becoming a nun at Poissy next year.
In 1406 renewed efforts were made to stop the schism, Chichele was one of the envoys sent to the new Pope Gregory XII. Here he utilised his opportunities. On 31 August 1407 Guy Mone, bishop of St David's, on 12 October 1407 Chichele was by the pope provided to the bishopric of St David's. Another bull the same day gave him the right to hold all his benefices with the bishopric, he was consecrated on 17 June 1408. At Siena in July 1408 he
Raunds
Raunds is a small market town in rural Northamptonshire, England. It has a population of 8,641, is a civil parish, is part of the East Northamptonshire district. Raunds is situated 21 miles north-east of Northampton; the town is on the southern edge of the Nene Valley and surrounded by arable farming land. Nearest civilian airports are East Midlands 65 miles. Raunds is close to Stanwick Lakes, a country park developed from gravel pits and managed by the Rockingham Forest Trust; this park is internationally recognised for its birdlife and can be reached on foot from Raunds along Meadow Lane bridleway. In the mid-1980s, during sand excavations in the Nene Valley, the remains of a Roman villa were discovered. Excavation of the area, near Stanwick, was delayed by several years while archaeologists studied the remains. In 2002 Channel 4's Time Team found remains of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery; the place-name'Raunds' is first attested in an Anglo-Saxon charter of circa 972-992, where it appears as Randan.
It appears as Rande in the Domesday Book of 1086, in a survey of Northamptonshire as Raundes. The name is the plural of the Old English rand, meaning'border'. Raunds played a role in the shoe industry until its decline in the 1950s and'60s. In 1905 a dispute arose about wages to be paid to army bootmakers, which culminated in a march to London in May that year. Several factories remained into the early 1990s but all are now closed, with many being demolished and housing estates built; the Coggins boot factory was the last to go, the site of it is now Coggins Close. The land on which the shoe factory and the original Coggins houses stood, was purchased by Robert Coggins on 25 February 1899 from the Duchy of Lancaster, for the sum of £14.10s.0d. The houses are still there, but were sold to Charles Robinson of Wellingborough in 1934. Robert Coggins lived in the hall where his picture hangs in the meeting room, he is buried in St Peter's Churchyard. There is no industry in the town now. Raunds once held the record for the highest temperature in Britain at 36.7 °C, set on 10 August 1911, which stood until 1990.
The most famous woman produced by Raunds was Ada Salter, a visionary and environmentalist who aimed at the'beautification' of the world. She did not just campaign against slums, bad working conditions, high-rise blocks, air pollution but promoted music, children's playgrounds, health and sports in the belief that people would become better - physically and ethically - if they were brought into contact with nature and surrounded by beauty in every shape and form. Born Ada Brown, Ada left her home at Thorpe House in Raunds at the age of 30, on a mission to bring beauty to the slums of London. In Bermondsey and on the London County Council she was able to put her ideals into practice. Along the way, she married the legendary doctor, Alfred Salter, became the first woman mayor in London and one of the first in Britain, her life was, marred by tragedy. She insisted on living in the slums herself, with her husband, an epidemic of scarlet fever killed Joyce, their only child; the heavy price the Salters paid for their idealism is recognised by the Salter Statues, an ensemble of statues on the south bank of the Thames just east of Tower Bridge.
They commemorate in bronze Ada and their beloved daughter. Raunds was the home of broadcaster and television personality Sir David Frost in his youth, when his father, Paradine Frost, was a minister at the Methodist church, before moving to Beccles in Suffolk; the Historic England website contains details of a total of 19 listed buildings and six scheduled monuments at or in the vicinity of Raunds. Amongst them are: St Peter's Church, Church Street; the Manor House, 2 Manor Street. St Peter's, CoE is in the Diocese of Peterborough and St Thomas More's, RC is in the Diocese of Northampton. In 1801 there were 800 persons In 1831 there were 1,370 persons In 1841 there were 1,653 persons In 2011 there were 8,641 persons Raunds is adjacent to the A45 and close to the A14 jct 13. Access to the M1 and A1 is close and the A14 runs from Britain's largest container port at Felixstowe in Suffolk to join the M6; the area attracts distribution companies warehouses. Bus services are limited, the X46 links the town with Wellingborough and Northampton, running half-hourly.
There are intermittent routes to Huntingdon and a local service termed the'Raunds Rover'. Connections are provided by East Midlands Trains from Wellingborough and Kettering railway stations, for direct trains to London St Pancras International, Nottingham and Leeds. There was once a Raunds railway station, on the Midland Railway's cross-country line from Kettering to Huntingdon, closed in September 1959, which gave access to St Ives and Cambridge, though Raunds station was sited 1½ miles from the town, it was planned that the Midland's Wellingborough to Higham Ferrers branch closed in 1959, would continue to Raunds, but landowners prevented it. The Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway, proposed a line from Doncaster to Raunds in an early version of its bid to build a trunk line to the capital; this line never came to fruition, the company built its London Extension via Nottingham, Leicester and Brackley. Stanwick Lakes are within walking or cycling distance of Raunds, river ways connect to the Nene Valley river section.
By boat, Oundle can be reached in a day. The Nene Valley river section connects to the Middle Level Navigation System, making it possible to reach Cambridge and Peterborough; the nearest marina is Willy
Oundle
Oundle is a town on the River Nene in Northamptonshire, which had a population of 5,735 at the time of the 2011 census. It is 69 miles north of 12 mi south-west of Peterborough; the nearest railway station, Corby, is 9.3 mi to the west. Inhabited since the Iron Age, Oundle was a trading place and village for local farmers and craftsmen; the Saxon invasion saw the arrival of a tribe called Undalas which meant undivided. It is the death place of St Wilfrid in 709 AD where he had consecrated a church as well as being the location of one of his monasteries; the current St Peter's Church occupies the same site as St Wilfrid's original church. Saint Cetta or Cett, a 7th-century saint, is the Patron Saint of Oundle. Little is known of him but according to the Anglo-Saxon Secgan Manuscript he was buried in the monastery at Oundle, near the River Nene, around 1000 AD and a chapel to him built in the 11th century, on the small knoll beyond the end of St Sythes Lane; the presence of this shrine and the market charter explain much of the growth of Oundle in the 12th century.
The Domesday Book records Oundle in Polebrook hundred with a population of 36 households, a mill and a value in 1066 of £0.3, which had risen to £11 by 1086. As the area became prosperous, wealthy traders set up shops and houses, guilds were formed. Unlike other settlements in the vicinity, Oundle was unaffected by the Black Death in the mid-14th century. Oundle had a grammar school at which Sir William Laxton was educated. In his will he left a legacy to found Laxton Grammar School in 1556, now known as Oundle School, administered by the Worshipful Company of Grocers. In 1743 a group of mutineers from the Black Watch were captured near Oundle, they had deserted in protest at being sent abroad, instead of patrolling the Highlands, for which the regiment had been raised. Among the oldest buildings is the Talbot Hotel; this was constructed of timber. Other public houses include the Rose & Crown, the Ship Inn, the Angel, the George and the Riverside, which has become derelict. There are a number of churches.
By far the most prominent, its 210-foot spire being the tallest in Northamptonshire, is St Peter's Church which has the main churchyard. There are Methodist and Roman Catholic churches; the Baptist church has a premises on St Osyth's Lane but holds services on Sunday mornings at Oundle Church of England Primary School. The town's most notable school is Oundle School, a co-educational boarding independent school with around a thousand pupils, most of whom are boarders; the two other schools in the town are Prince William School, a comprehensive school, Oundle Church of England Primary School, which rated as "Outstanding" in its 2011 Ofsted inspection. Oundle hosts a number of annual events, notably: The Oundle International Festival is an annual music festival and pipe organ school, founded in 1985, with the training of young organists as its core; these summer schools are centred on a Frobenius organ in the Oundle School chapel. A concurrent festival programme for the public was planned as a recurrent feature.
The Oundle Festival of Literature has regular events throughout the year featuring established and new authors. The Oundle carnival has taken place since 2009; the World Conker Championships have taken place in the nearby village of Ashton on the second Sunday of October since the championship started in 1965. A farmers' market is held in the Market Place on the second Saturday of every month as well as a local market every Thursday. There is a park with swings and climbing frames, as well as a skatepark, built in 2005 and regenerated in 2012. An annual fair and circus is located in the park. Oundle has many shops, pubs and restaurants all of which are located in the town centre, it has two supermarkets: a Co-op and a built Waitrose. Oundle maintains partnerships with the following places: Andrésy, France Nauort, Germany Oundle is home to two of the three factories producing Fairline Boats; the third site is located near Corby. The original factory is at the newer at the Nene Valley site; the Barnwell Road Marina site is being mothballed as the company restructures.
Ebenezer Prout - a musical theorist born in Oundle Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of independent record label 4AD was born nearby and went to school in Oundle Louise Mensch - the local Member of Parliament, lived in Oundle William Abell - a vintner born in Oundle Richard Dawkins - a scientist educated in Oundle Marian Hobbs - former politician Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson attended Oundle School as a teenager. "Oundle". Encyclopædia Britannica. 20. 1911. Oundle Town Council Oundle Chronicle Oundle St Peter's
Irthlingborough
Irthlingborough is a small town on the River Nene in Northamptonshire, England. It had a population of 8,535 at the 2011 census and was the smallest town in England to have had a Football League team, Rushden & Diamonds F. C. prior to the promotion of Forest Green Rovers to the EFL in May 2017. The parish church, St Peter, has a lantern tower, unusual for Northamptonshire churches, built to guide travellers across the Nene valley in foggy weather, it has doors at the four cardinal points and has eight misericords in the chancel. Irthlingborough was called Yrtlingaburg in the 8th century, Erdiburn in the Domesday Book, Artleborough later. King Offa of Mercia held court near Irthlingborough circa 790. In 1375 John Pyel, the mayor of London in 1372 and believed to have been born at Irthlingborough circa 1310, obtained a royal licence to found the college of St. Peter, Irthlingborough, by upgrading the parish church of St Peter; the college was to have six secular canons, one a dean, four clerks, but he died before his intention was carried out.
The design was accomplished by his widow, Joan, in 1388. In the past, ironstone was mined near Irthlingborough, as part of the local ironstone mine, a tunnel was bored between Irthlingborough and nearby Finedon; the tunnel still exists, but the Irthlingborough end has been landscaped over, the Finedon end sealed with concrete. Irthlingborough railway station closed in 1964 to passengers. More the River Nene floodplains between the town and its neighbour, Higham Ferrers, have been quarried for gravel. Quarrying in the area was extensive, stretching to Northampton in the west and Thorpe Waterville in the north-northeast; the quarries were left to fill with water, which caused artificial lakes. In 2012, the area was acquired by The Wildlife Trust, has since been turned into Irthlingborough Lakes and Meadows, a Nature Reserve, it will be part of the Upper Nene Valley Special Protection Area. The town can be divided quite into areas with Pine Trees to the south-west and Allen roads in the centre running parallel to the High Street on either side, Knightlands to the North, Crow Hill to the north-east and the football ground and training facilities to the east.
The A6 was bypassed in the 1930s to the north. The former route is the B5348. Irthlingborough Viaduct was built in 1936 and connects the town to Higham Ferrers and the busy A45; the A45 is a more dependable road than the A6, being less twisty and with fewer tractors in the traffic. Whitworths, the home baking and healthy snack products company, has been based in the town since 1886 and employs 310 people at the plant on the B571. Sonifex, a manufacturer of radio broadcast products, has been in the town since its beginning in 1969 and has its research and manufacturing base on Station Road. Dr. Martens has a long history with the town. In 2003 the company made a loss of £60m, having lost £32m in 2002; the company's office is now in Wollaston. The Wellingborough factory was the first to close in July 2002. There is an infant school, with nursery attached, a junior school and one secondary school, Huxlow Science College, which has a sixth form, part of the east Northamptonshire sixth form college. Between 2001 and 2006 Irthlingborough held the distinction of being the smallest town to hold a Football League club when Rushden & Diamonds F.
C. were promoted to League 2 after winning the 2000-01 Football Conference title. This was in part due to the funding of local businessman Max Griggs who bankrolled the club in the late 90's until the mid millennium when he sold to a fans group for just £1 in 2005; the club were relegated from the Football League in 2006 and went out of business in 2011 due to severe financial problems. A successor fans owned club, AFC Rushden & Diamonds, was formed two months after Rushden and Diamonds folded in July 2011. In its first season it had an under-18 youth team which played at Raunds Town F. C. joining the United Counties League in a ground share arrangement with Wellingborough Town at the Dog and Duck stadium. Two further promotions followed with AFCRD reaching Step 4. In 2018, having played for one season at Hayden Road ground in Rushden in another ground share with Rushden and Higham Utd, the club won promotion to the FA's Step 3 Premier Division Central of the Southern Football League; the original stadium, Nene Park, was demolished in 2017.
Irthlingborough Historical Society A History of Irthlingborough Iron Ore Mine. A History of Irthlingborough Iron Ore Mine. Parish Church of St Peter, Irthlingborough BBC page Whitworths opens heritage centre in March 2009 Dr Martens closes in March 2003
Tom Pursglove
Thomas Christopher John Pursglove is a British Conservative Party politician and former parliamentary assistant. He has been the Member of Parliament for Corby since May 2015; when elected in 2007, he was the youngest Conservative Local Councillor in the country and between 7 May 2015 and 9 June 2017, he was the youngest Conservative MP in the country. Pursglove was born in Kettering on 5 November 1988, he was educated at Sir Christopher Hatton School, a state comprehensive school in the market town of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, where he grew up, graduated from Queen Mary, University of London in 2009 with a politics degree. In 2007, at the age of 18, Pursglove became the youngest councillor in the country when he was elected for the Croyland Ward on Wellingborough Borough Council; the election saw the Conservative Party extend their dominance in Wellingborough, winning 30 of the 36 posts available and notably seeing three teenagers elected - including Pursglove and Ruth Bell. Pursglove was re-elected in 2011, but did not stand again in 2015.
In addition to his work as a Councillor, he worked as a parliamentary assistant to the Conservative MP for Daventry Chris Heaton-Harris and worked with the Conservative MP for Wellingborough Peter Bone. Prior to being elected as an MP, Pursglove was Deputy Chairman of the Wellingborough Conservative Association. Pursglove was elected as a Member of Parliament for Corby in the 2015 general election with a majority of 2,412, he won back for the Conservatives a seat, lost to Labour in a 2012 by-election after the former Conservative MP Louise Mensch stood down. In July 2016, following Theresa May becoming Prime Minister, Pursglove was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Robert Goodwill MP, the Minister of State for Immigration at the Home Office. Pursglove was re-elected at the 2017 general election with a increased majority of 2,960 votes. In February 2018, following the announcement that Northamptonshire County Council had brought in a "section 114" notice, putting it in special measures following a crises in its finances, Pursglove was one of seven local MPs who released a statement arguing that the problems with the authority were down to mismanagement from the Conservative councillors who led it rather than funding cuts from the Conservative Government.
They further argued. After the publication of the Chequers Brexit white paper and Ben Bradley's resignation over his perception that the Government was not delivering the right kind of Brexit, Pursglove took up the role of Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for youth on 27 July 2018. Pursglove was one of the founders of Grassroots Out, an organisation which advocated United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union; the organisation was led by politicians from a range of political parties, including fellow Conservative MP Peter Bone and Labour MP Kate Hoey. In February 2016 it was announced that Pursglove and fellow Conservative MP Peter Bone would be speakers at the UKIP Spring Conference. Although rare for representatives of rival political parties to appear at such events, they argued any role they had there would be as representatives of the Grassroots Out group. In April 2016, he was criticised for taking payments of £20,000 from the Grassroots Out campaign, of which he was Chief Executive, which some fellow campaigners argued should have been donated to further campaigning.
However, he argued his work had "keep costs to a minimum, allowing us to spend the maximum amount on campaigning", rather than hiring outside expertise. In May 2016, he stated that, given the choice, he would prefer to see Britain leave the EU than his party secure another majority at the 2020 election, but said that he was a'loyal Conservative' and had no desire to defect to UKIP. Pursglove has advocated abolishing the Department of Energy and Climate Change and expressed scepticism about human influence on climate change, he has questioned public spending on reducing carbon emissions in the UK on the grounds that countries like China produce more emissions and therefore needed to take more action. He has voted against measures attempting to tackle climate change since becoming an MP. Between 2013 and 2016, Pursglove was director, alongside Chris Heaton-Harris, of Together Against Wind, a lobbying company that helped move Government policy against favouring the installation of onshore wind power.
In Parliament, he voted to reduce regulation on fracking and, in light of this, was criticised by environmental campaigners for his constituency party having taken donations from energy firms. Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 2010–present Voting record at Public Whip Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
