LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
In 1293 Richard of
Windsor disclaimed any right to frankpledge or the
assizes of bread and ale in Stanwell. (fn. 14) The tenants of
Poyle manor owed suit to the hundred court in the
13th century (fn. 15) and no suggestion that the other
manors were exempt seems to have been made. In
the 17th century Stanwell manor court met generally
twice a year and seems to have appointed officers
annually. (fn. 16) They were the constables for Stanwell
(or 'the town') and Rudsworth; the tithingmen or
headboroughs for Stanwell, Rudsworth, Stanwellmoor, and West Bedfont; the drivers for Stanwell,
Stanwellmoor, and West Bedfont, and in the early
17th century for Rudsworth; and the haywards in
the early 17th century for Stanwell and Rudsworth.
There was also an aletaster. The constable for
Stanwell town also served, on confirmation by
Quarter Sessions, as parish constable, though in 1609
at least the Rudsworth constable acted jointly with
him. (fn. 17) In 1775 the manor court was still appointing
officers, though some changes had been made: a
constable, a tithingman, and a driver were appointed
for Poyle, and not for Rudsworth.
The territorial limits of the Stanwell manor
court's jurisdiction are not clear. Hammonds manor
had customary tenants in the 17th century, but
it had no separate population and probably no
common fields to regulate. (fn. 18) Poyle was an independent estate but probably had no court, (fn. 19) and
the Rudsworth officials may have had jurisdiction
over Poyle in the 17th century. In spite of this,
however, both Poyle and Rudsworth may have been
in some ways independent of Stanwell, since the
town of Colnbrook was incorporated in 1543, and in
1635 its boundaries on the Stanwell side ran from
Mad Bridge to Gray Bridge (now Lintells Bridge)
and then, apparently, more or less west to the Colne
Brook. (fn. 20) This must have included all Poyle as well
as Rudsworth, or Colnbrook End, itself. The
corporation was in decay by the 17th century but
the town was apparently administered until its
dissolution in 1832 by chapel-wardens, overseers,
and bridge-wardens. (fn. 21) There is, however, no evidence
that Quarter Sessions or Stanwell itself recognized
the independence of this part of Stanwell from the
jurisdiction of the parish.
Stanwell may have had some kind of poor-house
in the 16th century, when an 'almesse house' was
excepted from leases of part of Andrew Windsor's
property. (fn. 22) In 1771 Sir John Gibbons gave the
parish a poor-house at the south-east corner of
Hithermoor in compensation for inclosing some
open-field land. (fn. 23) There was said, however, to be no
workhouse in 1777, (fn. 24) and the parish records, which
are preserved from 1785, at first give no evidence of
one. The records show that parish business was
conducted by the vestry, which generally comprised
six to a dozen persons. Though the vicar or curate
often, and Sir William Gibbons sometimes, attended
on the whole the vestry was composed of farmers
and small-holders, a number of whom were unable
to sign their names. (fn. 25) The poor rates rose from £176
in 1785 to £598 in 1803 and £1,023 in 1821. They
dropped in the thirties to under £200, rising again
later. (fn. 26) In the 1780's a surgeon was paid 14 gns. a
year to undertake all attendance on the poor except
for confinements which were paid for separately. The
rest of the money was spent mostly on small regular
doles, with some occasional payments and some
gifts of clothes. About 1790 the parish owned five
cottages which were used as poor-houses, presumably in addition to the house given by Sir John
Gibbons. Three of these had been sold by 1823, and
no later references have been found to the others. (fn. 27)
In 1813-15, when the rates were nearly at their
height, there were 32 adults in the workhouse and
22 others permanently on relief. About 100 more
received occasional payments. (fn. 28) In 1834 it was said
that no relief was given to employed persons nor
regular relief to the able-bodied. Of the inmates of
the workhouse, the men cultivated the garden and
the women looked after the house, so that only the
boys, who worked for farmers, were profitably
employed. All the men receiving relief had formerly
been agricultural labourers. (fn. 29) By this time there was
a salaried assistant overseer, and parish affairs were
said to be managed by a committee appointed by the
vestry, though there is no trace of this in the vestry
records themselves. The workhouse was presumably sold after the parish became part of Staines
union in 1836. (fn. 30) It is said to have stood on the site of
Cheltenham Villas in Hithermoor Road until it was
demolished shortly before the villas were built in
1934. (fn. 31)
After 1836 the vestry continued to meet, generally
with the vicar presiding, to elect parish officers and
raise rates. (fn. 32) A burial board was formed in 1892 and
a cemetery was opened in 1895. In the same year a
parish council of nine members was formed. Contested elections for this were very rare. The longest
tenure of the chair was that of Sir Alexander
Gibbons in 1922-30. The vicar never sat on the
council but often presided at the annual parish
meetings. The whole council constituted a burial
board and churchyard committee for the parish;
it also had a finance committee, on which latterly all
the members sat. The council was an active one; it
intervened with partial success in the negotiations
for the building of the reservoirs and was concerned
in the provision of allotments in 1918 and of a
recreation ground in 1927. Its first complaint about
dangerous driving along the London Road was
made in 1909. In addition to the overseer, who was
unpaid, the council had two salaried assistant overseers, one of whom was also clerk to the council and
the other of whom was the rate collector. The
council protested against the inclusion of Stanwell
in Staines urban district, which nevertheless took
place in 1930, so that the council was dissolved.
In 1905 gas street-lighting was provided in
Poyle. An annual meeting of the inhabitants of
Poyle thereafter raised the necessary rates while the
parish council administered the lighting. Lighting
was given up in 1914 and not resumed until electric
lighting was provided for the parish as a whole in
1926.
The administration of Stanwell after 1930 forms
part of the history of Staines urban district council. (fn. 33)