Papworth Everard: Local government

Local government

About 1250 Peter of Savoy diverted suits previously due to county and hundred courts to that held for his honor of Richmond, to which they were still rendered in the 1270s. (fn. 1) No manorial court rolls have been traced.

Expenditure on the poor increased from c. £35 a year between the 1770s and 1803, when five people, all aged or sick, were relieved, (fn. 2) to c. £50 c. 1814. (fn. 3) It usually fluctuated between £40 and £70 until the 1830s. (fn. 4) About 1830 large families received allowances from the rates. (fn. 5) From 1835 to 1894 Papworth Everard belonged to Caxton and Arrington poor-law union, (fn. 6) from 1894 to 1934 to Caxton and Arrington rural district, from 1934 to 1974 to Chesterton rural district, (fn. 7) and after 1974 to South Cambridgeshire district. (fn. 8)

A parish council was not established until 1946. (fn. 9) From the 1920s the Papworth Settlement made itself responsible for providing the growing village with such facilities as electricity, introduced in 1920, and piped water, for which a water tower was built c. 1922 on high ground to the south. (fn. 10) By 1929 the Settlement had laid out a sewage farm near Kisby's Hut inside Papworth St. Agnes. (fn. 11) Street lighting was introduced in the late 1930s, when a fire engine was also provided. A new fire station was built in 1961. (fn. 12) Several of those services were eventually taken over by the local authority and other public bodies but the Settlement was still maintaining several roads in the 1970s and its managers were actively involved in parish business into the 1960s. (fn. 13)