Great Wilbraham: Local government

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

In the late 13th century the Templars exercised on their manor view of frankpledge and the assizes of bread and of ale and in 1299 claimed also waif, tumbrel, and felons' goods under Henry III's charter to them. (fn. 1) In the 1570s that court, held yearly, still named constables, already mentioned in 1286, and aletasters, besides making agrarian bylaws. (fn. 2) In 1625 it met in the hall of the manor house. (fn. 3) By the 1630s, (fn. 4) as later, held infrequently, the court confined itself to recording transfers of title to land. Court books, surviving for 1754- 1938, deal solely with tenurial business, copyhold and, even in the 19th century, freehold. (fn. 5) The Lovedays' manor had a three-weekly court in 1376. (fn. 6)

On the Richmond fees, draft rolls for courts baron, 1563-93, survive for Lovetots manor; (fn. 7) for Lisles courts baron were held c. 1610 (fn. 8) and, for transferring copyhold, into the mid 19th century. (fn. 9) At inclosure Lord Aylesford claimed, because the lords of Temple manor held some copyhold of Lisles, that Lisles was the paramount manor, and objected to Temple manor's naming pinders. (fn. 10)

Expenditure on the poor doubled between 1776 and c. 1785 to c. £175. In 1803 the outside relief of 18 people cost £146, (fn. 11) while that of 40 people required almost £550 in 1831, when another 10 received occasional help. The number relieved declined later, as did the cost, which seldom exceeded £350 into the early 1830s. (fn. 12) About 1830 labourers were apportioned among the farmers. (fn. 13) In 1836 the parish was included in Chesterton poor-law union, (fn. 14) and it belonged to Chesterton rural district from 1894 until its inclusion in South Cambridgeshire district in 1974. (fn. 15)

At inclosure in 1801 c. 11 a. in 'Brimstone Fen' were allotted to the parish, with 5 a. of gravel and clay pits, to maintain its roads and drainage system. (fn. 16) The income from that Public Works land, sometimes in the 19th century devoted to such parish purposes as the church and school, (fn. 17) remained initially with the parish council, set up in 1894, which was usually chaired until the 1940s by the squires, S. E. and R. S. Hicks, (fn. 18) In the 1920s control of that land passed to the district council. (fn. 19) The parish council also organized water supply, piped water being obtained after 1909 from the Cambridge Waterworks Co., (fn. 20) and provided electrical street lighting from 1946. (fn. 21)