Chippenham: Local government

A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 10, Cheveley, Flendish, Staine and Staploe Hundreds (North-Eastern Cambridgeshire). Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2002.

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'Chippenham: Local government', in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 10, Cheveley, Flendish, Staine and Staploe Hundreds (North-Eastern Cambridgeshire), (London, 2002) pp. 384. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol10/p384 [accessed 18 March 2024]

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Badlingham was sometimes treated as a separate vill from the late 11th century until the early 14th, but no court rolls survive for its manor. (fn. 1) Between 1216 and 1252 the preceptor of Chippenham was granted view of frankpledge, and the assizes of bread and of ale, in addition to a tumbrel and gallows. (fn. 2) The Hospitaller preceptory manor's court rolls survive for 1381-1469 with some gaps, as do further court rolls for 1509-1636 with five years missing. (fn. 3) View of frankpledge and the assize of bread were exercised. The court met under Thomas Revett's widow in 1582, and under her second husband c. 1583-96. After a gap court books survive continuously for c. 1686-1749, mainly dealing with copyhold transactions. (fn. 4) The court appointed a constable, pinders, and fen reeves in the 17th century and the early 18th. (fn. 5) In 1858 two fen reeves were appointed by the steward of the Chippenham estate. (fn. 6)

Between 1775 and 1802 the cost of poor relief, all outdoor, increased threefold: in 1804 30 persons received relief at a cost of £243, (fn. 7) but by 1815 expenditure had fallen by a third, and the number regularly receiving out-relief had halved. (fn. 8) In 1813-14 occasional poor relief went to 153 persons, about a fifth of the population, but by 1815 only to 15 persons. (fn. 9) By 1817, however, expenditure had risen to £450, and remained at that level c. 1818-34. (fn. 10) From 1836 onwards Chippenham was included in the Newmarket poor-law union. (fn. 11) In 1861 fifteen people were receiving poor relief, half very old. (fn. 12) From at least the 1930s Chippenham was part of Newmarket rural district but was transferred in 1974 to East Cambridgeshire district, as part of its Fenland Villages sub-district. (fn. 13)

From 1841 until 1871 there was a resident policeman, with four policemen serving in succession between 1852 and 1858. (fn. 14) A police station was built by 1843 south-east of the crossroads of the Norwich and Moulton roads to enable the arrest of thieves on the heathland. (fn. 15) The station was sold off in 1952, and in the late 20th century public order has been enforced from Soham police station. (fn. 16)

Footnotes

  • 1. V.C.H. Cambs. i. 378, 382-3; Cambs. Lay Subsidy, 1327, 6; Feud. Aids, i. 156.
  • 2. Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii. 498; Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 99.
  • 3. C.R.O., R 55/7/1/a-j.
  • 4. Ibid. R 55/7/1/g.
  • 5. Ibid. R 55/7/1/k-m.
  • 6. Camb. Chron. 20 Nov. 1858, p. 4.
  • 7. Poor Law Abstract, 1804, 38-9.
  • 8. Ibid. 1818, 30-1.
  • 9. Ibid.; P.R.O., HO 107/73.
  • 10. Poor Rate Returns, 1816-21, 10-11; 1822-4, 37-8; 1825-8, 15-17; 1830-4, 15-16.
  • 11. Gardner's Dir. Cambs. (1851); Young, Guide, i. 45, 49.
  • 12. Camb. Chron. 29 Mar. 1862, p. 8.
  • 13. Inf. from East Cambs. District Council.
  • 14. Camb. Ind. Press, 12 June 1852, p. 3; Camb. Chron. 28 Feb. 1852, p. 5; 18 Sept. 1858, p. 4.
  • 15. C.R.O., SP 44/2; Camb. Chron. 28 Feb. 1852, p. 2; 11 Feb. 1860, p. 8; Camb. Ind. Press, 13 Nov. 1852, p. 3.
  • 16. C.R.O., SP 44/2; Chippenham and Snailwell parish newsletter, 1996-7.