Vestry minutes
- Held At: West Sussex Record Office
- Reference Number: Par301/12/4
- Document Order #: Par 301/12/4
- Date: 1848-1863
- Level: Item
- Extent: 1 vol
- Description: The vestry continued to meet in the same public houses, electing churchwardens, overseers, and surveyors of the highway; making the church, poor and highways rates and passing the accounts; and nominating people suitable to serve as constables. Assessments of individual properties are recorded, with the name of the current owner. The cases of some individual paupers are settled; and some maintenance and removal orders are discussed. In 1854 a Burial Board was established, its members regularly appointed and its clerk's salary agreed.
In addition the minutes include:-
f.1 resolution concerning wages for stone breaking 1848;
f.1v agreement that the guardians may sell certain land and buildings under the Act concerning the conveyance of workhouses; detailed description of the property to be sold, 1848;
ff.5,8,30v minutes relating to the Hodges and Cuckfield Turnpike road, 1849-1850;
f.5v decision to approach landowners whose lands adjoin the church with a view to extending the churchyard, 1849;
ff.6v,8,12,14,15 minutes concerning proceeding towards children who are considered capable of supporting their parents in need 1849
ff.6v,8 minute relating to the Railway Company's [LB & SC] disagreement on the amount of their land to be rated; report by the assistant overseer on this matter, 1849;
ff.8v,9 discussion on the parish's liability to a proportion of the payments for the Hurstpierpoint road, 1849;
ff.10v,20v proposal to sell stone surplus to the highways surveyors' needs pending agreement by the landowners, 1849; agreement reached, 1850;
ff.14,15r & v,26 discussions concerning the status of a road to Brantridge Farm from Staplefields Common, 1849; further discussions on stopping or diverting certain other roads, 1850;
ff.20,25,28 reports of a committee to consider the removal of nuisances, 1850;
ff.22-84 [discontinuous] minutes relating to the sale of stones to the trustees of the Cuckfield & Brighton Turnpike Roads, 1850-1855;
f.33v minute requesting the highways surveyor not to employ single men in the stone pits, 1851;
f.36v minutes concerning the fencing, pathways, etc. of the churchyard, 1851;
f.38v minutes relating to the affairs of James Picknell, 1851 [See Par/301/12/3];
ff.42v,43 discussions concerning the making of a public footway between the town of Cuckfield and Haywards Heath, "by the side of Hodges Turnpike Road", 1852;
f.45 decision on the sexton's salary, 1852;
f.45v recommendation that the pauper William Lee and his family should emigrate to America, 1852;
f.46 general resolution to subsidise emigration, 1852;
ff.46v-50 minutes relating to the defaulting and absconding of John Albery, assistant overseer; description of the post and its responsibilities is given on the appointment of his successor, 1852;
f.53 decision on the rating of "the Sawhouse and Timber Yard at Haywards Heath Station", 1852;
ff.58v,59,71 minutes concerning the widening of the highway at the end of Dolphin Lane, 1853, 1854;
ff.60-156 [discontinuous] minutes relating to the closing of the churchyard with copy of letter from the [Home Office]; the purchase of land for a churchyard extension; the forming of a Burial Board; and the regular election of Board members, 1854-1862;
ff.63,64,72,111,112,147 copy of a letter from the Provost and Fellows of St.Nicholas College, Hurstpierpoint offering a scholarship for St. John's School; acceptance of the offer; in 1857, on there being two candidates for the scholarship the vestry took a poll; copy of letter of protest from the defeated candidate's mother; record of the election of a scholar in 1851, 1854-1861;
f.80 agreement concerning the widening of Board Hill Lane, 1854;
f.82 minute concerning the clerk's salary, 1855;
f.87r & v disagreement with Horsham Union over the charge made by Lower Beeding overseers for a pauper, 1855;
ff.89v-90v a proposal by the vicar [Thomas Astley Maberly] to repew the church led to a dispute, in which a poll was taken which vetoed the proposal, and which led to a resolution that "this Meeting views with extreme indignation the attempts on the part of the Vicar to prevent the Parishioners from expressing their opinion in public Vestry upon any subject affecting the Parish, and more especially upon a subject so important as the proposed alteration in the Parish Church", 1855;
f.92v decision to appeal against the county rate assessment; and not to appoint a Nuisances Removal Committee but to pay a county-appointed inspector, 1855;
f.99r & v decision that the surveyors tools and implements be kept in one place and hired out, 1856;
ff.100v-101v disagreement over the amount of the church rate; request by the vicar for a poll which resulted in a majority for the higher rate, 1856;
ff.102v-104v agreement to divert a highway footway (described in detail); agreement to subsidise the emigration of William Packham and his family to America; general agreement to raise a fund for emigration, 1856;
ff.105v-106v decision concerning new trustees of the Middleton and Burrell Charity, 1856;
ff.115v-119v in discussions on making a church rate, the following amendment was carried:-
"That there be no Church Rate made it being unnecessary at the present time, for we view the lavish way in which they spend money on Ornaments and Decorations as a proof that they are not in want of Funds to keep the Church in proper repair, and if made will go to assist Puseyism in this Parish". At the next meeting the churchwardens were asked to amend their estimates; the original motion for the higher rate was lost by one vote; a parish poll was demanded, resulting in the original rate being carried; in this instance a vote of thanks to the vicar was passed "for his Urbanity, Courtesy, and Gentlemanly conduct during the contest", 1858;
ff.120v-121v minutes relating to stone digging, 1858;
f.124 minute expressing concern over encroachments on a road, 1859;
ff.126-128v decision that the carting of stone should be by tender, and consideration of tenders, 1859;
f.131 after consideration of the case of a pauper woman in Cuckfield Workhouse, the vestry passed the following resolution: "that ... the fullest religious liberty ought to be given to the inmates be they of whatever denomination they may, and that a Copy of this resolution be sent ... to the Cuckfield Guardians with an expression of the earnest hope of this Meeting that they will at all times attend to and support the religious rites of those who are compelled to seek for shelter ... in the workhouse", 1860;
ff.133v-135 minutes concerning the carting of road materials, 1860;
ff.136v-137 decisions and copies of correspondence concerning an exchange with the parish of Balcombe of responsibility for certain roads, 1860;
f.138 recommendation to the Board of Guardians that Charles Stubberfield continue as Inspector of Nuisances, he having given satisfaction since his appointment by the "Late Local Authority", 1860 (See f.92v);
ff.139,140 a series of resolutions passed concerning a "road lately formed at Haywards Heath under the Inclosure Act leading from the Station to and into the Turnpike Road ...", 1861;
ff.143-144v minutes concerning the surveyors, the prices for stone etc., 1861;
f.145 decision that no removal order shall be made "without the previous sanction of the vestry", 1861;
f.146 disagreement with the Poor Law Commissioners over their not sanctioning the appointment of a Hurstpierpoint assistant overseer, 1861;
f.146v examination of lists of voters and claimants, 1861;
ff.147v-149v resolution to form a separate Highway District of those parts of the parish not comprised within the limits of the district formed under the Local Government Act 1858, 1861;
ff.153r & v,168 minutes concerning the Horley and Cuckfield Turnpike, 1862;
ff.157,159-161 minutes relating to the carriage of stone, with tenders and quantities quoted in detail for the various Highway districts, 1862;
f.162 minute concerning liability for "the new Sydney Road on Haywards Heath", 1862;
f.166 discussion of correspondence with the Board of Guardians on the inequality of rating as between parishes; forming of a committee to consider a new assessment (Assessment Committee Act 1862), 1862;
f.168 minute relating to the part of the Balcombe Road within the parish, 1852;
f.169v John Cripps Esq., representing the London Brighton and South Coast Railway Company was present at the vestry to discuss the assessment of the Company's property, 1863;
ff.171v-172 proposal to divert a highway footway which is described in detail, 1863 - Terms:Cuckfield
- Terms:Transatlantic Ties
- Access Status: Open
- Access Conditions: Please note that a part of this record has been digitised for the Transatlantic Ties project and can be viewed here: http://www.transatlantic-ties.org/
- Digital Copy:Online digital surrogate available
- Contact: West Sussex Record Office,