Stow on the Wold
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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
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 :-
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.
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 :-
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 :-
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 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
:-
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 :-
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
:-
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 039, by
permission of the General Editor.
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
:-
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 044, by
permission of the General Editor.
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
:-
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 023, by
permission of the General Editor.
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
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
:-
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 031, by
permission of the General Editor.
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
:-
Quoted from the Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, volume 6, page 055, by
permission of the General Editor.
Local Government -
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 :-
Local Government.
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
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