R4/817/1

Papers; Mainly routine business

1845 - 1862

From: 1845 To: 1862

Tenancies, repairs, allotments, churchwardens' accounts, church repairs. By 1855 there was a lending library. Difficult to gain any important information e.g. removal of town house, school, library from these papers. Most interesting is R4/817/3 - report and valuation by Samuel Swaffield of the Charity Estate; most of the property in a bad state of repair, & two cottages unfit for habitation; recommends pulling down the workhouse & school because of their ruinous condition, and school (if wanted) or cottages erected near the site. 7 cottages had" but one sleeping room to each, and that room generally of small dimensions; it is most deplorable to see the state in which some of the families are living. John Goodman for instance has a wife and 8 children (some grown up) all sleeping in a miserable closed chamber ( the roof and floor forming a triangle)...such a state of existence must produce the most demoralizing effects, and become ruinous to the health of the poor unfortunate creatures thus situated...it is most essential for the sake of common decency, health and morality, that they should be altered if possible."

item

Swaffield, Samuel,
Goodman, John

business, tenancy, building work, allotments, churchwardens, accounts, CHURCH, public libraries, buildings and land use, HOUSING, schools, valuations, charity, cottages, Parish Workhouses, demolition, FAMILY, CHILDREN, health, morality