Knapwell: Charities for the poor

Charities for the poor

Robert Collin c. 1666 and William Pamplin c. 1678 bequeathed rent charges for the poor of 10s. each and Abraham Pamplin left the interest on £10, yielding another 10s. At inclosure in 1776 Abraham's £10 was spent on fencing the 1½ a. allotted for the town lands. (fn. 1) Until the 1920s (fn. 2) they were occupied by the lord of the manor, whose farms also owed the £1 rent charge. From the 1880s that land with the adjoining exhausted 2-a. gravel pit, whose herbage had at inclosure been destined for the poor, (fn. 3) was let for c. £5. Half went until 1910 to the highway rates but from 1920 the whole rent of £3 5s. went to the poor. The rent charges were lost c. 1950. The land, whose rent rose to £24 by 1975, was sold in 1977 to the occupier of the surrounding Coldharbour farm.

William Squire by will proved 1826 left for the poor of Knapwell £200 (£180 net), invested to yield c. £5. In 1837 c. £4 of it was given in coal, the rest with the rent charges and town land rents of 13s. 6d. in small doles to poor families. In the 1860s £5 of the total charity income of £7 went on coal, the rest on clothing. In the 1880s the whole of £9 10s. was given in coal, but by 1910 as in 1960 all went in doles. A Scheme of 1975, superseding one of 1882, combined the town lands with Squire's bequest as the Knapwell Relief in Need charity. About 1980 the income on its invested capital, almost £300 a year, was again mostly given in fuel.