Harefield: Local government

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

In 1293 Roger of Batchworth claimed view of frankpledge, the assizes of bread and ale, trial of breaches of the peace, the hanging of felons, and other rights. For these liberties Roger paid the sheriff ½ mark a year. (fn. 1) In the mid-14th century the manor court was held every three weeks. (fn. 2) The right to two courts-presumably each year-was among those reserved from a lease of the manor of Harefield in 1409. (fn. 3) The officers elected by the manor court in the earliest surviving court-roll (1423) comprised a headborough, two constables, and four aletasters, two each for the 'northend' and the 'southend'. A bailiff of the manor is also mentioned. (fn. 4)

During the 16th century and the earlier 17th, courts were held at least twice a year. The view of frankpledge or leet and the 'little court' in the spring, and the general court in the autumn (fn. 5) were often, however, supplemented by special courts in the 16th and 17th centuries. (fn. 6) The last 'court leet and view' was held in 1826, (fn. 7) and the last court baron in 1899. Stewards of the manor continued to be appointed until 1913, and court papers were kept until 1925. (fn. 8)

In the 16th and 17th centuries the manor court continued to be the principal organ of local government. In the early 16th century the jury elected only the constables and aletasters, (fn. 9) but later, or at any rate sometimes, they elected the parish officers. In 1654 these numbered thirteen persons, being overseers of the poor, surveyors, constables, headboroughs, and five overseers of the commons. (fn. 10) The court laid down regulations for the use of the common and moor, the digging of gravel, and the mending of fences, ditches, and gates. (fn. 11) It also issued instructions concerning church attendance on Sundays. (fn. 12) By the early 18th century the courts were losing their local authority to the vestry, and the presentments during that century were almost exclusively concerned with the digging of soil on the common lands. By the end of the century the court was appointing constables, aletasters, and headboroughs at the leet, and appointed five or six moor drivers at the court baron. (fn. 13)

The manor of Moorhall had its own separate court in the 18th and 19th centuries, but its administration during the Middle Ages is unknown. In the mid-16th century the farmer of the manor took the escheats and the goods and chattels of felons and fugitives, (fn. 14) but there is no mention of any other jurisdiction. The first court for which records survive was held in 1587. (fn. 15) Two joint courts were held with Harefield in 1598 and 1601, (fn. 16) and after 1653 a court baron was held in the spring approximately every two years, the steward being the same as for the manor of Harefield. (fn. 17) Very little business, however, was ever transacted at the Moorhall courts, and no officers seem to have been appointed.

The vestry was in active existence by 1691, when it appointed someone to write the parish accounts for 20s. a year. (fn. 18) The lord of the manor, as owner of the rectory, appointed the sexton and parish clerk in 1679, (fn. 19) and the office of parish clerk was abolished by the patron, General Newdegate, in 1887, (fn. 20) so that it seems probable that his predecessors, rather than the vestry, had always made the appointment. Little is known of the activities of the vestry in the 18th century apart from the making of poor rates. Only one church rate was made between 1687 and 1836, which was used to pay for repairs to the church in 1705-6. (fn. 21) In the early 19th century the vestry met monthly, but by the mid-1820's it met four or five times a year with an average attendance of six or seven persons. By then it was almost exclusively concerned with the administration of the poor law. (fn. 22) The parish rented a workhouse by 1776, (fn. 23) and in 1782 built a new one. (fn. 24) There were ten inmates in 1803, (fn. 25) 35 in 1814, (fn. 26) and fifteen in 1834, of whom nine were old people. (fn. 27) The workhouse and poor were farmed in 1825 for £800 a year. (fn. 28) By 1834 there was a paid assistant overseer, who was responsible for the poor, ultimately to a public vestry, to which 'the whole business of the parish' was referred. The overseers served only for a year at a time. (fn. 29) After the parish became part of Uxbridge union in 1836, the workhouse was given up, but it was not demolished and still remained in existence in 1959, as a private house. It stood on the north side of Breakspear Road North, a little east of the junction with Northwood Road.

In 1894 the parish council was set up, (fn. 30) and an excited and stormy public meeting was held in the same year to complain about elections both to the council and to the Uxbridge rural district council. The opposition to the council stormed the platform, and there were frequent interruptions of the council speakers and shouts of 'clique', 'secret society', and 'foreigners'. (fn. 31) The council continued to lead a very stormy life, and bitter quarrels were engendered over the regulations for the village green and by-laws for the common. (fn. 32) In 1899 another public meeting was held which ended in virtual disorder, and at which the parish council was fiercely attacked by the parishioners. (fn. 33) The history of local government in the parish in the 20th century is comparatively uneventful. In 1929 the civil parish of Harefield was transferred to Uxbridge Urban District, (fn. 34) and in 1938 the civil parish itself was dissolved and absorbed into the Uxbridge civil parish. (fn. 35) In 1959 it formed a ward of the borough of Uxbridge and returned three councillors. (fn. 36)