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Stow on the Wold Workhouse and Poor Law Union Page Contents

The Union Workhouse was erected in Maugersbury in 1836. It was renovated in 1929 and became an Old People's Hospital called East View.

Records 

Parishes which constitute Stow on the Wold Union

Adlestrop  Great Barrington  Bledington  Bourton on the Water  Broadwell 
Clapton  Condicote  Donnington  Eyford  Icomb 
Church Icomb  Longborough  Maugersbury  Naunton  Notgrove 
Oddington  Great Rissington  Little Rissington  Wick Rissington  Sezincote 
Lower Slaughter  Upper Slaughter  Stow on the Wold  Lower Swell  Upper Swell 
Westcote        


Stow on the Wold

Workhouse - Hospital

When the town needed to extend outwards instead of becoming more concentrated by infilling, the direction was first South across New Street or Sheep Street (alternatively known as Back Street c.1600.)  68  

Later the main area of new building was East of Well Lane, in Maugersbury's territory, and nearly 100 small houses were built there in the earlier 19th century.  70

The same period also saw the building of the Union Workhouse in 1836,  71  after which Union Street is called; the workhouse was remodelled after 1929, and later became an old people's hospital known as East View.  72  

Notes :- 
68         Glos. R.O., D.610/E14.
70         Census
71         Glos. R.O., Stow-on-the-Wold Union, specification for workhouse, 1836.
72         Glos. County Council Mins. xlv. 196: local information.
Source:
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 146, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom

Local Board of Health

In 1829 the Stow Lying-in Benefit Society was founded, and in 1893 a branch of the Cotswold Benefit Nursing Association was started in Stow.  94.

Note :-
94         Bartlett, 19th-cent. Stow, 24.
Source: 
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 150, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom

Civil War period Epidemics

The effects of the fighting were made worse by visitations of the plague in 1644  28  and 1646.  29

Smallpox was said to be rife in Stow in 1758, though the churchwardens denied it.  30  There were smallpox epidemics in 1831, 1833,  31 and 1852.  32  The altitude and exposed position of Stow were reputed to make it on the whole a healthy town.  33

Notes :-
28         Glos. R.O., D 621/M21.
29         Ibid. D 45/M19/S.168.
30         Glos. N. & Q. i. 69.
31         Vestry min. bk.
32         Bartlett, 19th-cent. Stow. 19.
33         Glos. R.O., D 1375/122.
Source
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 151, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom

Poor relief & Workhouse & Hospital

For the purposes of parochial government the ancient parish was probably divided into its three constituent parts (the town, Maugersbury, and Donnington) by the 16th century, and as early as 1389 there was a separate clerk for each.  5  In 1566 there were four churchwardens in all, apparently two for the town and one each for Maugersbury and Donnington,  6  as in 1826.  7

By the early 19th century one of the wardens of the town was the rector's nominee.  8  The office of parish clerk and sexton, evidently a prized one, was filled by election by the parishioners.  9

Donnington was a separate poor-law parish by 1718,  10 and by the late 18th century the town and the two hamlets were quite distinct in the civil functions of parish government.  11  The separation had probably become effective after the Act of 1662, when a poor-rate was said to have been first set,  12  for the houses built on the east side of the town after that time were  (until the late 19th century) outside its boundaries.  13.  Maugersbury had, in addition to  its churchwarden, one overseer and two surveyors; c. 1770 the lord of the manor was one of the surveyors. 14.  Apart from its churchwarden, Donnington's overseer may have been the hamlet's only officer, for in the early 19th century the chief farmer there seems to have performed, as overseer, the functions of a vestry.  15.

Expenditure on the poor of Donnington rose sharply compared with neighbouring parishes at the end of the 18th century and by 1813 had reached a level more than ten times that of 1776. It then fell, and remained fairly constant until 1834. Maugersbury, with the growing urban element in its population, had by the late 18th century a higher expenditure on the poor, which increased less sharply but continued to increase after 1824.  16  Roadwork and the payment of some rents by the parish were the only steps taken to alleviate the problem.  17

In the town of Stow, the coming together of main roads and the existence of the market and fairs and of an industrial population apparently produced special problems of poor relief and highway maintenance. No exceptional means or methods, however, were devised for dealing with these problems, although there may have been a select vestry for dealing with poor relief by 1822.  18

In addition to the churchwardens there were two overseers, and two surveyors who presented separate accounts and were made responsible in 1825 for repairing the town well.  19   In 1834 a small majority defeated a proposal to appoint a paid assistant overseer.  20  Two conditional contributions in 1691 and 1710, towards a workhouse were apparently lost because no workhouse was built.  21  In 1712 Quarter Sessions ordered that a combined workhouse and house of correction should be established at Stow in the "Eagle and Child"  22  but no later reference to this institution has been found.

Expenditure on poor relief in the late 18th century increased more than average for the area, and remained high. A school of industry with 22 children in 1802 had apparently closed by 1812,  23  it may have been in the malthouse, locally reputed a poor-house, in Digbeth Street.  24  In 1816 many paupers from Stow appealed to the justices for relief,  25  and at about that time the proportion of poor receiving regular outdoo relief increased.  26  In addition the vestry encouraged ad hoc remedies: in 1829, for example, it subsidized the voluntary emigration to America of a barber and his family, and in 1830, during a bad winter, sponsored a coal committee to administer funds raised by subscription. Small economies included the ruling of 1823 that the parish doctor should attend confnements only if application had previously been made to the vestry.  27

To deal with health problems, the vestry in the 18th century kept a pest house,  28    and in 1831 and 1833, following outbreaks of smallpox, temporary boards of health were set up.  29  A burial board was formed in 1855, and a new graveyard was opened south of the town beside the Foss Way. A nuisance removal committee existed in 1859 when a nuisance inspector was appointed.  30

The town and the tow hamlets all became part of the Stow-on-the-Wold Poor Law Union under the Act of 1834,  31 and of the Stow-on-the-Wold Highway District in 1863  32 Under the Local Government Act of 1872 the town and the urban part of Maugersbury (which was transferred to Stow civil parish in 1894) were placed under a local board and subsequently became an urban district.  33

 Donnington and the rest of Maugersbury became part of the Stow-on-the-Wold Rural Sanitary District under the Act of 1872, and were transferred in 1935 to the newly formed North Cotswold Rural District, in which the Stwo urban district was merged the same year.  34  The town of Stow was thereafter under a parish council, which in 1961 met monthly.  35  Parish council powers were conferred on Maugersbury parish meeting in 1945, but from 1948 to 1955 Stow and Maugersbury shared a common parish council.  36

Notes :-
5          Worc. Epis. Reg., Reg. Wakefield, f. 18b.
6            Hockaday Abs. xliii, 1566 visit. f.15.
7          Vestry Min. Bk. 1822-29. pp. 42-43.
8          Ibid. p.38.
9          Glos. R.O., D 1700/L2; G.D.R. Stow Terrier, 1807; Churchwdns Acct. Bk. 1832-61, p.25.
10         Glos. R.O., Q/SO 4, East. 4 Geo.I.
11         Poor Law Abstract, 1804, 182-3.
12         Royce, Stow, 22-23.
13         O.S. Map 1/2,500 Flos. XXII. 14 (1st edn.).
14         Glos. R.O., D 1700/X 1.
15         Rep. Com. Poor Laws (44), pp. 194a-c, H.C. (1834), xxx-xxxii.
16         Poor Law Abstract, 1804, 182-3 : ibid xi, and H.C. 444, p. 69 (1835) xlvii.
17         Rep. Com. Poor Laws (44), pp. 196a-c, H.C. (1834), xxx-xxxii.
18            Suggested by the division of vestry mins. between two books, which is not entirely explained by the different compsoition of the ecclesiastical and poor-law parishes.
19         Vestry Min. Bk. 1822-59, pp. 36, 40, 55.
20         Vestry Bk. 1822-38.
21         Royce, Stow, 23: Sir Rob Atkyns - Trans B.G.A.S. xxxv. 74-75.
22         Glos. R.O., Q/SO 3, Epiph. 10 Anne.
23         Poor Law Abstract, 1804, 182-3; Ibid 1818, 154-5.
24         Cf. Bartlett. 19th cent Stow, 7.
25         Glos. R.O., D 1283/1, p.7.
26         Poor Law Abstract, 1818, 154-5; Vestry Bk. 1822-38. 
27         Vestry Min. Bk. 1822-59. pp. 9, 38, 63-64. The surviving vestry minutes begin in 1822, and the church-wardens accounts in 1832.
28         Glos. N. & Q. i. 69 : ii. 473.
29         Vestry Min. Bk. 1822-59. pp. 80 sqq.
30         Bartlett, 19th Cent Stow. 19, 32. 
31         Census.
32         Lond. Gaz. 1863. p. 1706. 
33         Kelly Dir. Glos. (1879), 748; Census, 1901.
34         Census 1881, 1931, 1951; the various boundary changes are outlined above. p. 142.
35         Ex. inf. Mr Hawkes.
36         Glos. R.O., CL/O 1/5, nos. 249, 271, 324.
Source
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, pages 158-9, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom

Almshouses & Hospital

Charities - The almshouses known after their 16th century benefactot as Shepham's Almshouses presumably derived from the medieval hospital in Stow reputedly founded by Ethelmar.  90  By his will dated 1476 William Chester provided for the building or re-building of eight almshouses, in admission to which members of the Holy Trinity guild were to be given preference. The almspeople, who were to go to church daily, received 8d a week ( 12d for a man and wife living together) and were attended by a nurse. The almshouses were in use in the mid-16th century,  91  and at the end of it were reorganized and rebuilt along with the school by Richard Shepham, apparently on the site where the 19th century buildings survived in 1961. The new arrangements, by which nine almspeople (with no nurse) were each to receive 1s a week, were ratified by a royal charter of 1612 making the bailiffs and burgesses of Chipping Norton (Oxon) governors of the almshouses. In addition, the almspeople benefited from the income of £200 given for their clothing by Jordan Mince by will dated 1768; from the income of £100 spent on their fuel, under the will of Edward Pitman, dated 1817; from a share of the £12 a year given to the poor of Stow by William Cope by will dated 1691 (the remainder being divided among the poor not in the almshouses) ; and from half the income, spent on fuel, of £300 given by Mrs Mary Hicks by will dated 1805. In the 19th century, and probably earlier, the administration of all these charities and the selection of almspeople was left to the rector and churchwardens.  92  In the mid-19th century the almshouses were rebuilt in two terraces, of six and three, the terrace of six facing south; formerly all nine had been in a single terrace facing north across the churchyard.  93

The almshouses and almshouse charities, together with other parochial charities, were reorganized under a Scheme of 1889. Nearly all the other charities were for distributing bread: Lady Juliana Tracy gave £50 before 1702, Thomas Compere £150 in 1715, John Greyhurst £50 in 1716, Joshua

Aylworth £100 in 1720, Richard Freeman £20 soon afterwards, Danvers Hodges (d 1721) a £3 rent charge, Sarah Chamberlayne £50 by will dated 1734, and Thomas Selwyn or Selvin, a £1 rent charge at an unknown date. The capital sums were all laid out in land. Townsend's gift, by will dated 1682 of 2s a week for bread, was in fact used for education along with the sum given by him specifically for that purpose.. Half of Mary Hicks's gift (see above) was for bread and beef, and the immemorial rent-charge of 13s-4d on the Court House was by 1828 used for bread,  94 although earlier it had been used for church repairs,   95  John Harvey Olney, by will proved 1836, gave £200 in trust for distributing coal and blankets.  96  All these charities were for the whole ancient parish of Stow; there were two separate charities for Maugersbury, £10 for distributing bread, given by Sarah Chamberlayne by her will dated 1734 but apparently lost by 1828, and an allotment for the poor's fuel made at inclosure in 1766, of which the rent was distributed in cash by the rector in 1828.

Apparently the poor of Stow town alone were intended to benefit by another allotment for fuel at the same inclosure.  97  
In the later 19th century all these charities were run by the rector in an autocratic manner; confusion and charges of misappropriation resulted. The charities except for the two fuel allotments, were sorted out by the Stow-on-the-Wold Parochial Charities Scheme of 1889, which included other than purely eleemosynary charities (though educational charities were excluded from the Scheme in 1906). Under the Scheme £52 a year was to be distributed to the almspeople, who were limited to four in number, and up to £20 a year was to be expended for the general benefit of the poor. 98

In 1961 the almshouses had been condenmed as dwellings, but five were occupied and stipends continued to be distributed to the almspeople. The other charities for the poor were distributed in kind, the rent from the fuel allotments being spent on coal.  99

The Walter Reynolds Home of Rest was founded in 1929 in part of Stow that was in the ancient parish of Upper Swell by Reynolds's daughter, Mrs Ellen Teague, to provide rent-free accommodation for six aged inhabitants of Stow with limited means.  100

 Notes :-
90         For the hospital see V.C.H. Glos. ii. 126, where it is wrongly stated, on the authority of a source referring to Stowe (Cambs)., that the hospital was for women. For the reputed  founder see above, p 159.
91            Hockaday Abs. cccxl, U. Slaughter 1549; ccclvi, 1536. 
92         21st Rep Com. Char. 176, 178-9, 182.
93            B.G.A.S. Libr., annotated copy of Royce, Stow, at p 43. 
94         21st Rep. Com. Char. 179-82.
95         Glos. R.O. D 1700/L 1. no. 9; Bodl. MS. Rawl. B. 323, f. 254b.
96         Copies of wills and other documents appertaining to the parochial charities of Stow St                     Edward - by The Rector of Stow (R.W.Hippisley. (priv. print. Stow, 1889). 
97         21st Rep Com. Char. 182-4.
98         Char. Com. files.
99         Ex inf. the rector.
100       Char. Com. files.
Source
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, pages 164-5, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom  

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Addlestrop - Local Government.

The records of the manor court survive for the periods 1400-4,  82  1498-1512  83  and 1553-1775,  84  and show the court as a more than usually active agent of local government. in 1501 the manor court ordered a tenant to remove an expectant mother, immediately after her purification, from his household because it was of `bad governance'  85  in the 18th century James Leigh hoped to curb the mischievous  habits of the village children through the agency of the court.  86  

The records of parochial government have not been discovered, and are thought to have been destroyed by fire.  87  By 1498 there were two separate churchwardens for Adelstrop chapelry  88

and although in 1572 there were three churchwardens for Broadwell and Adelstrop together,  89  by 1584 Adelstrop again had two separate churchwardens.  90  A constable for Adelstrop too the oath of allegiance in 1715.  91.

Under  the Act of 1834 Adelstrop became part of the Stow-on-the-Wold Poor Law Union,  92  and in 1863, was included in the Stow-on-the-Wold highway district.  93  Under the Local Government Act of 1872 it became part of the Stow-on-the-Wold Rural Sanitary District, and was transferred to the newly formed North Cotswold Rural District in 1935.  94

Notes :-
82         S.C. 2/175/76.
83         S.C. 2/175/77.
84            Shakespeare Libr. Adelstrop ct. rolls; Glos. Colln. RZ. 5.1 (1775 only) A fragment of the               Roll for April 1762 forms the cover of Glos. R.O. D 1375/490.
85         S.C. 2/175/77. m. 7.
86            Shakespeare Libr. letter among Adelstrop ct. rolls.
87         Ex. inf. the rector.
88            Hockaday Abs. xxii. 1498 visit. f. 43. Both were members of the Fretherne family.
89            Hockaday Abs. xliv. 1572 visit. f. 24.
90         G.D.R. Vol. 40.
91         Glos. R.O. Q/SO 4 (TS cal).
92         Census.
93         Lond. Gaz. 1863. p. 1706.
94         Census. 
Source
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 014, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom  

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Bourton on the Water

Hospital

The Bourton-on-the-Water Village Hospital (later usually called the Moore Cottage Hospital) was opened, the third of its kind in the country, in 1861, largely through the efforts of John Moore, a local surgeon. The yearly number of in-patients was c. 30 and of out-patients c. 170. The original building (later the house known as Eastfields) was rented,  3  and in 1879 the hospital was moved to a new building (later The Red House) on a site given by W.S. Stenson.  4  In 1928 the hospital was moved to another building, provided by George Frederick Moore.  5  Under the National Health Act of 1946 the hospital, which had formerly been maintained largely by voluntary contributions, passed under the management of the Banbury and District Hospital Management Committee.  6

Notes :-
3
W.C. Coles, Acct of Bourton-on-the Water and Cotswold Village Hosp. (London, 1877) 5, 7, 9-15.
4
  B.G.A.S. Libr. Royce MS. UU, Bourton-on-the-Water.
5
  Bourton-on-the-Water Official Guide (3rd edn.), 7-8.
6
  The Medical Directory (1961).

Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 039, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom

Poor relief & Workhouse

There are overseers' accounts for the parish for 1715-59, with lists of parish officers for 1657-1767, and vestry minutes for 1782-1800 and from 1830.  80  The vestry was run mainly by the richer farmers; only after the beginning of the 19th century did the rector start to play a dominant role in the vestry.  81  Expenditure on poor-relief rose less in Bourton than in most neighbouring parishes in the late 18th century, and in 1803 the rate was 3s. compared with an average of 4s-8.5d for the lower division of the hundred.  82  In the 12 years after 1803, however, expenditure nearly doubled.  83  This may have resulted from the methods of poor-relief used. From 1783 one of the two overseers appointed was salaried, the other being described as his nominal partner. By 1783 payments were being made to a doctor for the poor, some of whom were sent to the Gloucester Infirmary, and about the same time the vestry began to rent a house for use as a workhouse and introduced the roundsman system. In 1785 a scheme for setting the poor in the house to work was evidently effective, and from 1787 the workhouse was farmed. From 1789 to 1800 the workhouse master also accepted at farm the roundsman's wages, the expenses of the justices, and the sale of coal to the poor,  84 but by 1803, when 18 families received permanent relief and another 18 people were relieved occasionally, the workhouse had gone out of use,  85  perhaps because the vestry was trying to drive too hard a bargain.

In 1830 it was decided that the parishioners would not be relieved unless they went to church or chapel on Sundays. By this time there seems to have been revived enthusiasm in dealing with poverty, and between 1830 and 1833 financial help was given to 12 families to emigrate to North America. The vestry was conscientious about nuisances and public health in general, an improvement in which was attributed to the liberal help of resident doctors. In 1834 it was resolved that the building then used as a poorhouse should be put in good condition and reopened as a workhouse.  86

 Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 Bourton became part of the Stow on the Wold Poor Law Union.  87  It became part of the Stow on the Wold highway district in 1863  88  and of the Stow on the Wold Rural Sanitary District under the Local Government Act of 1872 (being transferred to the newly formed North Cotswold Rural District in 1935.  89  In the mid-20th century the parish council, which in addition to the normal functions administered the Moore village trust  90  was meeting once a month.  91

 Notes :-
80
         In church safe.
81         Vestry min. bks. 1782-1800, 1830-52.
82
         Poor Law Abstract, 1804, 182-3.
83
         Ibid. 1818, 154-5
84
         Vestry min. bk. 1782-1800.
85
         Poor Law Abstract, 1804, 182-3.
86
         Vestry min. bk. 1830-52.
87
         Kelly's Dir.Glos. (1856), 232.
88
         Lond. Gaz. 1863. p. 1706.
89
         Census.
90
         See p 36 (of this volume)
91
         Ex inf. Mr. J. Taylor, chairman.

Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 044, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom  

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Barrington Great & Little

Court Rolls for Great Barrington manor survive for 1505-6,  7 1563, 8 1567, 9 1569,10 1570,11

1571, 12 and 1624. In 1624 each of the three tithings had still its own constable and tithingman  13  

The only surviving record of Little Barrington manor court is an abstract of a court roll of 1779, defining the bounds of the manor and making orders about animals; 14  the owner of each part of the manor is said to have held a court in the 17th century.  15

Churchwardens' accounts of Little Barrington survive from 1747, and of Great Barrington only from the 19th century, but there are overseers' papers for Great Barrington, including a large number of removal orders, from 1714. Between 1775 and 1803 expenditure on poor relief increased fourfold in Little Barrington and sixfold in Great Barrington.  16  In the next ten years expenditure in Little Barrington fell although the number of people being regularly relieved rose from 12 to 32, while in Great Barrington, where in 1815 there were 37 people regularly and 34 occasionally relieved, expenditure again doubled.  17  

Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 Great Barrington became part of the Stow-on-the-Wold Poor Law Union, and Little Barrington part of the Northleach Union. Under the Public Health Act of 1872 they thus became parts of the Stow-on-the-Wold and Northleach rural sanitary districts respectively, and from its formation in 1935 the new civil parish of Barrington was in the Northleach Rural District.  18  The parish council met regularly in 1962.

Notes :- 
7          B.M. Add. Roll. 26826.
8          Glos. Colln. R. 66.30.
9          Glos. R.O., D 1375/203.
10         Ibid. D 247.
11         Ibid. D 1375/204
12         Ibid. D 1986.
13         Ibid. D 247.
14         Deeds at Barrington Grove.
15         Atkyns. Glos. 253.
16         Poor Law Abstract, 1803. 182-3.
17         Ibid. 1818, 154-5.
18         Census.

Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 023, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom
 

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Bledington

A few court rolls survive for the periods 1341-1466, and 1553061. The earlier ones show that a court was held at Bledington at least twice a year, not at any regular time.  20  The 16th century rolls differ little in scope from the earlier ones, but the court appears to have been held only once a year. It appointed between two and four overseers, who performed the function of fieldsmen, holding office for a year.  21

Churchwardens' accounts survive from 1771 and vestry minutes from 1856-1895. Of the two churchwardens one was chosen by the vicar. There may have been some property qualification as the office sees to have been held usually by members of the families holding small estates. The accounts were signed by two or more people in addition to the retiring churchwardens and the vicar.

At the end of a year any deficit owing to the churchwardens was met by a levy, to be collected by the wardens, which varied from 1s-6d a yardland in 1771 to 7s in 1777. From 1779 there was a paid parish clerk. In 1797 both wardens were appointed by the parish, and, perhaps because the vicar was non-resident, from 1798 to 1806 there was only one. After 1806, though still non-resident, the vicar again appointed one of the wardens.  22

Poor-relief expenditure in Bleddington in the late 18th century and early 19th century appears to have followed similar trends to those in the other parishes in the area. A small workhouse was opened, in which there were seven people in 1893, when another 15 were receiving regular outdoor relief.  23  Bledington became part of the Stow-on-the-Wold Poor Law Union under the Poor Law

Amendment Act of 1834, and subsequently of the Stow-on-the-Wold Rural Sanitary District  24

In 1935 it was transferred to the newly created North Cotswold Rural District.  25

Notes :-
20         Glos. R.O., D 678/ct rolls/61, 61A, 61C, 62, 66, 66A, 94-96, 98B, 98C, 99.
21            Shakespeare Libr., Bledington ct.rolls.
22            Churchwardens' accts.
23         Poor Law Abstract, 1804, 182-3.
24         Census, 1881.
25         Census, 1951.

Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 031, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom
   

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Broadwell

Evesham Abbey's reeve or bailiff for Broadwell, mentioned in 1318  16  was apparently holding a court for the manor every three weeks in 1351.  17  In 1535 he received an annual salary of 20s  18

Evesham Abbey held the assize of bread and ale in Broadwell.  19  Most of the tenants came within  the abbey's leet jurisdiction that centered on Stow,  20  but the preceptory of Temple Guiting claimed view of frankpledge and waif of its tenants in Broadwell.  21  There are records of the manor court for 1428  22  1528-39  23  1552, 1556, and 1559.  24  It is unlikely that any manor courts were held after the end of the 16th century,  25  and the vestry may have assumed functions previously performed by the manor court  26  at a comparatively early date.

No vestry records have survived from before the 19th century. The churchwardens' accounts from 1812 onwards do not record the activities of the other officers. The vestry minutes from 1836 onwards may indicate the practice of an earlier period. In the middle years of the century one of the two churchwardens (there had been two in 1498)  27  was chosen by the rector, and there were  two surveyors of the highways (as in 1773)  28  two overseers of the poor (with an assistant at £4 a year from 1850), and two constables, (a constable and a tithingman in 1836) Not until 1852 did the rector or his curate normally take the chair at vestry meetings, which were held at irregular intervals three or four times a year and attended by about ten ratepayers.

In relieving the poor in the late 18th and early 19th centuries Broadwell was either less hard pressed or less generous than its neighbours. A new assessment for the poor's rate was made in 1777  29  but in 1802-3 Broadwell had a far lower rate than any other parish (save Donnington), in the upper division of the hundred,  30  and the total expenditure on the poor remained  proportionate in the twenties and early thirties.  31  The parish owbed six cottages which were used to house poor parishioners ; in 1837, after the inclusion of Broadwell in the Stow-on-the-Wold Poor Law Union, the cottages,then occupied by seven tenants,  32  were sold to one of the farmers of the parish.  33

The constable had a small amount of land, for which he was allotted half an acre at inclosure in 1793, when the parish surveyors were also allotted 4 and a half acres to provide them with stone for repairing the roads.  34

The roads in the parish seem to have been burdensome to maintain, perhaps because they included a stretch of the Foss Way. In the late 18th century repairs were made largely by team-labour.  35  

In 1843 a separate rate was made for the roads, and in 1850 a contract was made for repairs.  36

In 1863 Broadwell was included in the Stow-on-the-Wold Highway District  37  Under the Local Government Act of 1872 it became part of the Stow-on-the-Wold Rural Sanitary District, and was transferred to the newly formed North Cotswolds Rural District in 1935.  38  A parish council had been formed by 1895.  39

Notes :-
16
         Reg. Cobham. (Worcs. Hist. Soc.) 10.
17
         Inq. p.m. Glos. 1301-58, 345.
18
         Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iiii. 252.
19
         Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), i. 178.
20
         Rot. Parl. (Rec. Com.), iii. 561-3; see above, p.7.
21
         Plac. de Quo. Warr. (Rec. Com.), 245.
22
         B.M. Add. Roll. 74,141.
23
         S.C. 2/175/21.
24
         B.M. Add. Roll. 74,142.
25
         See p. 52
26
         e.g. the vestry in 1861 appointed a poundman: vestry min. bk. 1836-71.
27
            Hockaday Abs. xxii. 1498 visit. f. 39.
28
         Glos. R.O., D 610/Z 1, notice by surveyors.
29
         Glos. R.O., D 612. copy of assessment.
30
         Poor Law Abstract. 1804, 182-3.
31
         Poor Law Returns, H.C. 83, p 71 (1830-31), xi; H.C. 444, p. 69, (1835) xlvii.
32
         Vestry min. bk.: the cottages have not been indentified.
33
         Glos. R.O. D 334/T 5.
34
         Ibid. Q/RI 30.
35
         Ibid. D 610/Zi, notice by surveyors, 1773; note on highway duty 1774.
36
         Vestry min. bk.
37
         Lond. Gaz. 1863, p 1706.
38
         Census, 1881, 1931.
39         Char. Com. files.

Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 055, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom  

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Clapton

Local Government -
Ecclesiastically, and until 1540 manorially, Clapton belonged to Bourton-on-the-Water. No separate manor court for Clapton is known to have existed. Ecclesiastically, however, Clapton achieved a measure of independence; it had two churchwardens of its own in 1584
82  and in 1661,  83  though only a single `chapelwarden' by 1784  84 For civil purposes Clapton achieved complete independence as a parish. No parochial records of civil government survive, the chapelwarden's book of 1795-1909  85  recording only the ecclesiastical business of the vestry. A constable and a tithingman for clapton were appointed in the court leet at Stow  86  where in the 18th century defects in the stocks, the pound, and the hedges of Clapton were presented.  87  

In 1802 there was a single overseer,  88  and it is not clear whether the chapelwarden had any poor-law function, though presumably the 17th century churchwardens did in theory. Perhaps as a result of the benificence of William Fox, who is said to have clothed all the poor of the village.  89  parish expenditure on the poor increased in the years up to 1803 much less than in other parishes of the district;  90  in 1812-15 Clapton was remarkable for the small number of families on permanent relief  91  

Clapton became part of the Stow-on-the-Wold Poor Law Union under the Act of 1834  92  of the Stow-on-the-Wold Highway district in 1863  93  and of the Stow-on-the-Wold Rural Sanitary District under the Act of 1872 (being transferred to the newly formed North Cotswold Rural District in 1935)  94  In 1895 the parish meeting received the powers of a parish council, enabling it to administer allotments;  95  in 1962 it administered not only yhe allotments owned by the county council but also those that were privately owned.  96

Notes :-
82         G.D.R. Bourton-on-the Water terrier, 1584
83            Hockaday Abs. lxviii, 1661 visit. f.26.
84         G.D.R. vol. 319.
85         In Bourton church.
86         Glos. R.O. D 1375/487.
87         Ibid. 491, ff. 19b, 14, 22, 23b.
88            Chapelwarden's book.
89         Sun. Sch. Teacher's Mag. 1830 N.S. i. 260.
90         Poor Law Abstract, 1804. 182-3.
91         Ibid. 1818. 154-5.
92         Kelly's Dir. Glos. (1856). 269. 
93         Lond. Gaz. 1863. p. 1706.
94         Census.
95         Mins. of Glos. County Council, vii. 199.
96         Local information.
Source:
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 062, by permission of the General Editor.
Submitted by Alan Longbottom  

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Condicote

Local Government.
No court rolls for the manors of Condicote are known.
 26  The Templars claimed view of frankpledge of their tenants there,  27  and the Archbishop of York's tenants were within his liberty;  28  the rest attended the hundred court.  29  It is unlikely that there was much power in the manorial government after the mid 16th century, and the parish officers appear to have been lax; in 1576 and 1584, for example, the churchwardens were not changed each year,  30  and in 1640 the constable was in trouble for his failure (not his refusal, apparently) to collect ship-money.  31  

The accounts of the two churchwardens survive for the period 1778-1861. The activity of the overseers is recorded in 5 settlement papers of the late 18th century and the early 19th century. 32  The task of providing for the poor was either less urgent than in the neighbouring parishes or less generously undertaken. The number of poor relieved in 1802-3 was relatively small, and although the rate that year was about the average for the district, less than half of the total raised from the rate was spent on the poor, less indeed than had been spent 20 years earlier.  33  

The parish was included in the  Stow-on-the-Wold Poor Law Union under the Act of 1834  34   the Stow-on-the-Wold Highway district in 1863  35  and of the Stow-on-the-Wold Rural Sanitary District under the Local Government Act of 1872 (being transferred to the newly formed North Cotswold Rural District in 1935)  36  A parish meeting was initiated at an unknown date, but in 1950 no meeting had been held for several years  37

 Notes :-
26
         A document so described, S.C. 2/175/18, is in fact a survey.
27
         Plac. de Quo. Warr. (Rec. Com.), 245.
28
         See p.94
29
         e.g. Sherborne Mun. 164-5.
30
         G.D.R. vol. 39. p. 46; vol. 40.
31
         Cal. S.P. Dom. 1639-40, 419; cf. ibid. 1640, 214.
32