LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
Manorial government.
Separate courts were held for Daubeneys,
Bruces, and Pembrokes and, at least from 1422-3,
for Mockings (fn. 95) until 1429, after which date a single
court served all the manors. (fn. 96) Records survive for
most years, although not equally fully for all the subdivisions, from 1318, when a court was held for
Daubeneys, to 1920. (fn. 97) In the 14th century there was
usually a view of frankpledge around Whitsun and
at least one other court, in the autumn; (fn. 98) in the 17th
century the view, called a court leet in the 1650s,
was held immediately before a court baron in the
autumn, with at least one court at another season. (fn. 99)
The last view took place in 1847 and the last court
baron met in 1870, (fn. 1) although transactions were
recorded for another 50 years. Courts met in the
1650s at the White Hart inn (fn. 2) and from 1807, if not
earlier, at the Plough. (fn. 3)
In 1294 view of frankpledge, infangthief, outfangthief, and tumbrils were claimed by Hugh de
Kendale as grantee for life of the manor of Hastings
(later Pembrokes). The same rights, as well as the
assizes of bread and ale, gallows, and waifs and
strays, were claimed by John de Balliol, king of
Scotland, for the manor of Balliols (later Daubeneys),
and by Robert de Bruce for his manor of Bruces. (fn. 4)
Headboroughs were chosen at the view of frankpledge in 1319, the assizes of bread and ale were held
regularly from the mid 14th century, (fn. 5) and constables
were chosen by 1394. (fn. 6) All the 13th-century liberties
were enjoyed by Richard Turnaunt at his death in
1486, as well as fines of outlawry and the right of free
warren. (fn. 7)
There was a pillory in High Road in 1455-6 (fn. 8) but
by 1526 Tottenham had neither stocks, a cucking
stool nor a pillory, and also lacked weights and
measures for the assizes. The lord had supplied
none of them three years later, except apparently a
cucking stool, with which a woman was threatened
in 1530. (fn. 9) During the 17th and most of the 18th
centuries 2 aleconners and 4 constables, one for
each ward, were chosen annually at the manorial
court, as were a hayward, 2 common drivers, and 2
markers of cattle to protect the common lands. (fn. 10)
From the mid 18th century there was some competition between the rights of the court and those of
the vestry, which first appointed a constable in
1750. (fn. 11) Courts were concerned almost entirely with
property transactions from 1780, yet parishioners
demanded that a manorial court should consider
public nuisances in 1797; (fn. 12) after the lord had named
the constables in 1806 the vestry asked to be told of
his intentions in future, (fn. 13) as late as 1844 it complained of great inconvenience arising from the
court's failure to provide parish officers and in 1847
it approved the appointments which at last had
been made. (fn. 14)
Perquisites of court were included in the grant of
Tottenham Rectory manor, late of Holy Trinity
priory, to Sir Thomas Audley. (fn. 15) A court was held in
1536 (fn. 16) and courts baron, recorded from 1541, were
held for the king and then for the chapter of St.
Paul's and, in the 1650s, for Stephen Beale. They
dealt with the election of homagers and property
transactions, meeting nearly every summer and, at
least from 1694, normally following courts for the
St. Paul's manors in Edmonton. The last session was
in 1863, although business which took place out of
court was recorded until 1905. (fn. 17)
Parish government to 1837.
The division of the
parish into wards can be traced to 1515 when, in the
manorial court, two constables were chosen for
High Street, one for High Cross, and one for Wood
Green. (fn. 18) In 1565 there was a constable for the Hale
and High Cross and in 1566 one for the Nether End
quarter and another for the Middle quarter. Four
wards were represented from 1577, (fn. 19) with boundaries presumably based on population: in William
Bedwell's time Nether (afterwards Lower), Middle,
and High Cross wards covered the eastern part of the
parish from north to south, with a combined acreage
roughly equal to that of Wood Green ward, which
covered the rest. (fn. 20)
There were two churchwardens by 1577 (fn. 21) and
isolated accounts of the upper churchwarden survive
from the time of Charles I. (fn. 22) The earliest records of
a vestry, the minute books, date only from 1676 (fn. 23)
and consecutive churchwardens' accounts from
1732. (fn. 24) Meetings were held at the vestry house,
which Lord Coleraine first offered to rebuild in
1688. (fn. 25) The average attendance was 12 in the 1690s
and again at the end of the 18th century, but it was
no more than 5 in the 1740s. The vicar or his curate
often presided and occasional attenders included
Henry, Lord Coleraine (d. 1708), Hugh Smithson,
Henry, Lord Coleraine (d. 1749), and James
Townsend, who served as a churchwarden.
A churchwarden served one year as lower and a
second year as upper churchwarden until 1776,
when the vicar asserted a right to fill one of the
offices. Exemptions could be obtained from this and
from other duties, fines being doubled to £10 in
1733. Four collectors, called overseers from the early
18th century, were nominated for approval by
quarter sessions. Other salaried appointments were
those of a sexton, vestry clerk, and beadle, mentioned
respectively in 1691, 1696, and 1730. Surveyors of
the highways existed by 1654, (fn. 26) two being chosen at
quarter sessions from a list submitted by the vestry.
Offices later multiplied: the vestry clerk became
assistant overseer in 1756 and the beadle performed
a similar function from 1798 before the appointment of a full-time salaried official was recommended
in 1818, while a salaried assistant surveyor was provided from 1772 until 1798, when the number of
surveyors was doubled. Constables, first nominated
by the vestry in 1750, had one assistant for the whole
parish from 1798 and two by 1805.
Inhabitants were listed according to wards both
for church-rates, by 1628, (fn. 27) and poor-rates, by
1637. (fn. 28) Eighteenth-century poor-rates were normally
fixed four times a year and varied considerably,
from 2d. in the £ in 1742 to 18d. in 1763. Any person
who rented a house worth £5 a year or more was
made liable to poor-rates from 1775. In 1775-6, out
of £763 raised, £694 was spent on the poor. (fn. 29) Expenditure rose to £2,140 in 1816, £3,133 in 1819,
and £4,065 in 1821, (fn. 30) but had fallen to £2,242 in
1836-7, the last year when Tottenham maintained
its own poor. (fn. 31) The parish's income was augmented
by fines, pew-rents, and, above all, by charities and
sums for the waste-land; from 1833, after criticism
of the accounts, the income from the waste-lands
and parish estates was paid into a separate fund, with
its own treasurer.
Poor-relief, in the form of clothing and small
payments, was given by the churchwardens at the
vicar's direction in 1628. (fn. 32) In 1681 a parish child was
supported and in 1682 the vestry ordered that all
regular pensioners should be paid by the collector
for Wood Green ward, whose colleagues were to
hand over their sums for disbursement by the
churchwardens: 12 regular pensions, mostly of 2s. a
week, were authorized in 1687 and 14 in 1695. Landowners were forbidden to employ strangers between
Michaelmas and Lady Day from 1699, in order to
provide work for the poor. Ten years later all pensioners had their goods listed and in 1721 they were
ordered to wear badges. Casual payments continued
to be made both by churchwardens and overseers
after the opening of a workhouse; regulations for the
workhouse in 1789 laid down that out-relief should
be discouraged as much as possible, but considerable
casual payments made the overseers' accounts confusing in 1833.
From 1730 to 1744 the poor were housed in rented
premises under successive salaried masters the vestry
paying the whole cost. From 1744 the poor were
farmed until in 1763 a workhouse was built on part of
Coombes Croft, Marsh Lane. Thereafter the vestry
alternated between direct management and farming
out, the contractor receiving either an annual salary,
a fixed price per head, or a combination of the two.
Under the regulations drawn up in 1789 and substantially reissued in 1818, a committee of 24
guardians was to meet monthly at the workhouse, 4
members were to carry out weekly inspections, and
suitable ladies might give their advice; the master
and mistress were always to be resident, inmates
could keep 2d. in the shilling of their earnings, and
children should be taught to read. The workhouse
held 44 persons in 1775-6 and was too small by 1818,
when 7 Tottenham paupers had recently been kept
in other parishes. A proposal to form a select vestry,
under the Sturges Bourne Act, (fn. 33) was rejected in 1819
and 1825 but adopted in 1833, when 14 members
were elected.
The vestry contributed towards a robbery committee for Edmonton hundred in 1692 and built a
parish cage in 1743. It agreed to raise a special rate in
1774 for the trustees of the Stamford Hill turnpike
trust, who would light and watch Tottenham
High Road during the winter months. In 1800 the
cage was replaced by a watch-house near the Blue
Coat school, with a keeper from 1821 to 1827. An
association to protect property was formed in 1828,
earlier nightly patrols having been reduced from lack
of funds; (fn. 34) a salaried street-keeper and constable was
appointed separately from the watch-house keeper
in that year and made a full-time official, under the
overseers, in 1830. The vestry declined to seek the
introduction of the new police in 1830 and to take
over the watching of the turnpike roads in 1831. It
adopted the Lighting and Watching Act in 1833 but
failed to reappoint the inspectors after three years,
leaving private subscribers to support a temporary
constabulary. (fn. 35) A board of surveyors was set up in
1835 under the General Highways Act. (fn. 36)
From 1795 an engineer was chosen with other
officers at Easter. In 1809 the vestry adopted the City
of London's practice of offering graduated rewards
to the first machines to reach a fire. It also empowered
the engineer to hire up to 20 helpers and, in 1821,
ordered him to exercise the machine four times a
year. It is not certain whether the first engine-house
stood next to the watch-house, as it certainly did
after the two had been placed in the same man's
charge.
A special rate, mainly to pay for nursing, was
levied because of an epidemic in 1637. (fn. 37) Medical
services were paid for in 1697 and a surgeon for the
poor received an annual salary, with more for dislocations and fractures, from 1739. The workhouse
at Coombes Croft does not seem to have been supplemented with a pest-house, as was demanded by the
master in 1775, two years after admissions had
temporarily been stopped because of fever. In 1785
it was decided to choose one of two local surgeons
alternately at Easter and in 1791 to pay him more for
maternity cases. Reimbursement for giving free
innoculations was approved in 1798. In 1831 the
surgeon was required to submit all expenses weekly
to the overseers, as in Edmonton, and relieved of
some work by the appointment of a parish midwife.
A board of health, formed under the threat of a
cholera outbreak, functioned for about a year from
the end of 1831; (fn. 38) it acted at first without parochial
authority, until extra members were added by the
vestry.
Local Government after 1837.
Tottenham
joined Hampstead, Hornsey, Edmonton, Enfield,
Cheshunt (Herts.) and Waltham Abbey (Essex) in the
new Edmonton poor law union in 1837. The parish
workhouse was then closed and the inmates were
transferred to the Edmonton building, pending the
establishment of a workhouse for the union. (fn. 39)
Although the temporary board of health had been
disbanded after the cholera epidemic in 1832, the
vestry, faced with a steady rise in population
acquiesced in surrendering most of its powers after
the establishment of Edmonton union. (fn. 40) Inclusion
within the area of the Metropolitan Police was
sought three years before Tottenham achieved it,
with neighbouring parishes, in 1840. (fn. 41) Lighting
inspectors were appointed after the adoption of the
Turnpike Lighting Act in 1841. The parish was
among the first to petition for the establishment of a
local board under the Public Health Act of 1848 and
was empowered to elect a body of 9 members in
1850. (fn. 42)
Tottenham local board of health, which soon
superseded the surveyors as the highway authority,
took over lighting under the Public Health Act of
1858 and in 1859 became responsible for firefighting. Membership was raised to 12 in 1871 and
to 18 in 1887, when the rise in population west of
High Road led to the division of the district into
6 wards: High Cross, Middle, Lower, Wood Green,
West Green, and St. Ann's. (fn. 43) Despite the board's
initial zeal its measures were repeatedly overtaken
by the population growth and so incurred fierce local
criticism. In 1858 control finally passed from City
men to local interests, whose pursuit of rapid building and consequent trouble over sewerage brought
the board's reputation to a low point by 1871: in that
year, quarrelsome and almost penniless, it was
accused in the Herald of having ruined everything
and everybody. Conditions thereafter improved,
largely under the stimulus of a local pressure group,
Tottenham Sanitary Association, which was formed
in 1873 and promoted its own candidates at elections. (fn. 44) The board occupied two rooms in Somerset
Road, where the grammar
school later had a playground, until the beginning of 1874, when it
moved to Coombes Croft
House after accepting a
21-years' lease. (fn. 45)
As early as 1869 the new
middle-class residents of
Wood Green demanded
their own administration. (fn. 46) In 1888 the
Tottenham Local Board
(Division of District)
Act (fn. 47) made Wood Green
ward a separate district.
Tottenham was left with
some 65,000 people, while
23,000 were placed under
the new authority. (fn. 48) The
two local boards became urban district councils
under the Local Government Act of 1894. Borough
status was granted to Wood Green in 1933 and to
Tottenham in the following year. (fn. 49)
Borough of Tottenham.
Gules, a saltire couped or; on a chief indented or, a helmet sable between two billets azure, each charged with an estoile or [Granted 1934]
Tottenham local board was left with 5 wards and
15 members in 1888. (fn. 50) A proposal to double the
membership was resisted in 1893, when the county
council complained that the local boundaries did not
agree with parliamentary or county electoral divisions,
which were themselves brought into line with the
wards in 1897. All members retired every third year
until 1900, when one member was permitted to
retire annually in each ward. By that date middleclass residents on the newly developed land around
Haringey House, resenting their inclusion in predominantly working-class wards, were seeking to be
transferred from Tottenham U.D. to Hornsey.
Harringay ward was therefore created in 1901, (fn. 51) out
of parts of West Green and St. Ann's, and the urban
district council was enlarged to 18 members. Membership was raised to 30 in 1905 and to 40 in 1925.
Reorganization in the 1920s affected all the wards
except West Green and raised the number from 6 to
8: Bruce Grove and Stoneleigh, Chestnuts, Green
Lanes, Park and Coleraine, Stamford Hill, Town
Hall, West Green, and White Hart Lane. By 1951
further changes had produced 11 wards: Bruce
Grove and Central, Chestnuts, Coleraine, Green
Lanes, High Cross and Stoneleigh, Park, Seven
Sisters, Stamford Hill, Town Hall, West Green, and
White Hart Lane. Throughout the existence of
Tottenham B.C. the Labour party had a large
majority. (fn. 52)
Tottenham town hall was opened in 1905, (fn. 53) on the
west side of the Green, where Eaton House, Wilton
House, the Ferns, and Hatfield House had been
acquired as the site for a group of civic buildings.
The hall, of red brick with stone dressings, was
designed in a baroque style by A. S. Taylor and
A. R. Jennett. (fn. 54) It was flanked to north and south by
the new central baths and
the central fire station,
plainer buildings but of
similar materials. In 1913
the opening of Tottenham
county school next to the
baths completed a range
which formed an imposing municipal centre. The
town hall, which remained the seat of local
government until the
absorption of Tottenham
into Haringey, was used
for social services, health,
and housing offices in
1972. (fn. 55)
Borough of Wood Green.
Or, on a fess azure between three yew trees eradicated proper a barrulet argent [Granted 1933]
At Wood Green the
local board and the U.D.C. began with 12 members. (fn. 56)
In 1910 membership was raised to 18 and the district
was divided into 5 wards: Alexandra Park, Bowes
Park, Central, Noel Park, and Town Hall. There
were 23 members from 1919 until 1933, when the
charter dissolved Bowes Park and Central wards,
leaving the remaining three to return 6 members
each to a council which also included 6 aldermen. (fn. 57)
Opponents of the Labour
party dominated the
borough council until
1950, when Labour
gained control from the
Independents. (fn. 58) Earlham
Grove House in Wood
Green High Road was
occupied by the board
in 1890 (fn. 59) and acquired,
with nearly 11 a., in 1893.
The offices were extended
in 1913 (fn. 60) and served as
the town hall until the
first stage of a new
scheme was finished in
1958. The new town hall,
facing High Road south of
Trinity Road, was designed by Sir John Brown and
A. E. Henson, whose original plans had been
approved 20 years earlier. (fn. 61) It served as the civic
centre of Haringey in 1972.
London Borough of Haringey.
Sable, eight rays issuing from the fess point throughout or [Granted 1965]
In 1965, under the London Government Act of
1963, Tottenham joined Wood Green and Hornsey
to form the London Borough of Haringey. (fn. 62) The
new council, of 10 aldermen and 60 councillors representing 20 wards, met at the civic centre in Wood
Green. Administration was reorganized by the
appointment of a chief executive and town clerk and
of directors of educational, financial, public, social,
and technical services. In 1972 the chief executive
and town clerk, with the directors of finance and
public services, were at Wood Green and the education offices were in Somerset Road, while social
services were administered from Tottenham town
hall and technical services from Hornsey town hall.
Haringey has been Labour controlled except between 1968 and 1971, when the Conservatives had a
majority. (fn. 63)