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Home , Clunbury, Clun Castle, Cornovii (Midlands), Hopton Castle (village), Lydham, Myndtown

A BACKGROUND TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT Contents Introduction 1 Pre-Norman 1 The 2 1066 to late Middle Ages 4 The Ancient Parish 6 Civil Administration 6 Magistrates 6 Poor Laws 7 Vagrancy Laws 7 Alehouse Act 8 Hundred Courts 8 Public Health Acts 8 Sanitary Districts and Urban District 8 History of voting 10 Addenda – later additions starting on page 11

Introduction Around the time of the , much of our area of interest, the townships of Hobendred, Pentre Hodre, Menutton, Hobarris, Purlogue and Treverward (and ) was waste. In fact the only townships mentioned in then Domesday book were Lurkenhope, assumed to be Hobendred, Menutton beneath Purlogue and Obley (Obelie); the rest were presumably waste or foresta (see below for explanation ). Knighton was also waste so it is assumed that jurisdiction over our area lay in . It is therefore of interest to say something about Clun as an administrative centre.

The main sources of information are various Wikipedia articles; Discovering Parish Boundaries by Angus Winchester (Shire Classics); Domesday Book – , edited by Frank and Caroline Thorn (Phillimore). Victoria County Histories, History of Clun by F E S Baker, Clun Shropshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868 and a paper entitled a ‘Concise account of ancient documents relating to the Honor Forest and Borough of Clun’ by Thomas Salt, 1858.

Pre-Norman The entire area of modern Shropshire was included within the territory of the Celtic Cornovii tribe, whose capital was Hill fort.

Territory of the Cornovii (Wikipedia)

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After Roman military expansion into the area in 47, the tribal territory was reorganised as a Roman Civitas and the capital was relocated to Viroconium. Following the collapse of the Romano-British administration, the Cornovii territory became part of the Kingdom of , within which the Sub-Kingdom of Pengwerne became centered on .

The part of Powys which is now Shropshire was annexed to the Saxon Kingdom of by King Offa. In 765 he constructed Watt's Dyke to defend his territory against the Welsh, and in 779, having pushed across the , drove the Welsh King of Powys from Shrewsbury. He secured his conquests by a second defensive earthwork known as Offa's Dyke.

Rhwng Gwy a Hafren (English: Between Wye and Severn), also known as Cynllibbwg or Calcebuef, was a region of medieval , located in the between Powys to the north and Brycheiniopg to the south. It was bounded by the rivers Wye ( Gwy ) and Severn ( Hafren ), hence its name. It covered approximately the same territory as , now part of the county of Powys, but also extending into Shropshire. The region first came into its own in the 9th or 10th centuries, when it was ruled by leaders who operated independently of the surrounding Welsh kingdoms and made up the central part of what later became known as the Welsh Marches. Prior to the Norman invasion, the Danes took parts of it from the Saxons, and after 1066 was a frequent site of struggle between the Welsh and . That might well have been the end of the story if it had not been for the collapse of Norman authority in Wales brought about by the death of King Henry I December 1135 and the descent into protracted anarchy in as Stephen and Matilda battled it out for the throne. According to historian P M Remfrey, while the English were pre-occupied with their own problems, Rhwng Gwy a Hafren experienced a brief revival in the latter part of the 12 th Century when Cadwallon ap Madog Rex de Delvain, a descendant of the old kings of Cynllibiwg fomented a rebellion and by 1148 had expelled the Mortimers and their royalist allies from much of the land between the Wye and Severn. Had Roger Mortimer not managed to ambush and kill Cadwallon in 1179, the course of history in these parts might have been very different.

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Rhwng Gwy a Hafren

Mercia was mapped out into shires in the 10th century after its recovery from the Danes by Edward the Elder. The first mention of 'Shropshire' in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle occurs in 1006, when the King crossed the Thames and wintered there. The historic counties of England were created in late Saxon times. The origin of the name "Shropshire" is the Old English "Scrobbesbyrigsc īr" (literally Shrewsburyshire ), perhaps taking its name from Richard Scrob (or FitzScrob or Scrope), the builder of Richard’s . However, the Normans who ruled England after 1066 found both "Scrobbesbyrig" and "Scrobbesbyrigscir" difficult to pronounce so they softened them to "Salopesberia" and "Salopescira". Salop is the abbreviation of these . The county was an artificial construct, within the territories of two distinct Anglo-Saxon tribes, the Wroecensætans in the north and the Magosætans in South Shropshire and North .

In the 10 th century, counties were divided into hundreds as judicial units with hundred courts which met every four weeks or so. The hundreds were also a taxation unit. It is supposed that they originated as a territory assessed at 100 hides, a hide being the unit on which taxes and other obligations were assessed: it was the amount of land needed to support a peasant family, generally 40-120 acres:

In late Saxon times Shropshire contained about hides, which included Rinlow and , covering our area of interest

Below the hundreds were the parish and the vill, the latter name being synonymous with township. Unlike the south of England, the midland and the northern English parishes contained many vills or townships: the township was the basic unit of local administration. All parishes were ecclesiastical as civil parishes did not appear until the late 19 th century. Ancient parishes go back to the Anglo-Saxon times and were either minster - or mother – churches or field churches. The minster churches covered a larger area and were served by several clergy. The support of priests became obligatory under the laws of Edmund (937-46) and Edgar (970) and these tenth

3 century tithe laws decided the boundaries between parishes. The minster churches ere generally royal or Episcopal foundations an often connected with a local estate. *** Wild Edric was an Anglo-Saxon thane who lived in Saxon times and after the conquest. He held large tracts of land in Shropshire including around Clun, so our area of interest was governed by him at the time of the conquest in 1066.The fact that large areas south of Clun were waste is due to wars with the Welsh from the west also and the Danes from the east and no doubt later when Edric took on the Normans. In the mid-11th century the major Welsh figure was Gruffyd ap Llwelyn ap Seisyll, ruler of Powys who was responsible for much of the devastation. Wales was not conquered until the reign of Edward I ((1272-1307).

The Domesday Book Nineteen years after the Norman Conquest, King William at Gloucester ‘had deep speech with his councillors … and sent men all over England to each shire … to find out … what or how much each landholder held … in land and livestock and what it was worth.’

The whole operation was completed inside 12 months and gives a picture of Shropshire as it was just before and after the conquest.

Ch 4 Land of Earl Roger Earl Roger from was related to William the Conqueror by marriage and was a Palatine earl and the king within Shropshire. Holding of Picot (Robert de Say) under Earl Roger

8 Clun. Edric held it; he held it as a free man. 15 hides which pay tax. Land for 60 ploughs. In lordship 2; 5 slaves; 10 villagers and 4 smallholders with 5 ploughs, a mill which serves the court; 4 Welshmen pay 2s 4d. Of this land Walter holds 2 hides from Picot; Picot, a man-at-arms, 3 hides; Gislold 2 hides. They have 3 ploughs and 2 slaves; 2 ploughmen 8 villagers, 4 smallholders and 2 Welshmen with 2 ploughs Between them, 2 riders pay 2 cattle in dues. Value of the whole manor before 1066 £25; later £3; now, of what Picot has £6 5s; of what the men-at-arms have £4 less 5s. 11 Obley* Almund held it. 2 hides. These lands were and are waste. 22 Menutton. Edric held it. 1 hide which pays tax. Land for 2 ploughs. It was and is waste. I hedged enclosure. 23 Lurkenhope. Edric held it. 2 hides and 1 virgate which pays tax (about 30 acres). Land for 6 ploughs. It was and is waste. 2 hedged enclosures.

Notes from the DB, Thorn edition: Rinlow Hundred with part of Leintwardine Hundred became Hundred in Norman times. The name Rinlow is derived from names containing hlaw meaning burial ground or barrow.

Clun. Now a parish which was in Rinlow hundred, later in Purslow. It was caput of Picot, then FitzAlan’s, barony of Clun, who holds the town from the King. Richard Earl of Arundel holds Clun castle and manor and receives rents from places which are members of the barony. The church of Clun went to

4 Wenlock Priory. (for general information see William Eyton’s Antiquities of Shropshire)

Obley, now in parish, was part of the barony and manor of Clun. Menutton, or Munetone in DB, was in Leintwardine hundred. In 1272 it was Moneton’ subtus Porteloke (Purlogue) in 1272

Lurkenhope is given as Edretehope in Leintwardine Hundred, and identified in VCH i p.336 possibly with Hopebendred, a township which includes and the Pentre.

Treverward, Purlogue, Pentre Hodre and Hobarris are not mentioned in DB and could be regarded as foresta. While forests were generally surveyed as part of a manor’s resources, outside tracts of wooded or untilled land called foresta , meaning ‘outside, ’were not covered. Indeed the name Purlogue almost certainly comes from the Norman French word, Purlieu, meaning a small area exempt from the forest laws where people could live more freely.

Knighton, held by Hugh Donkey from the King was in Leintwardine Hundred. Leofled held it before 1066. Five hides and land for 12 ploughs a large wood. It was and is waste.

Local place names in Domesday include Obley (Obelie) and Menutton (Monetune) Images displayed under a Creative Commons BY-SA licence – credited to Professor J.J.N. Palmer and George Slater.

1066 to the late Middle Ages Although Mercia had had been administered after 1066 by Earl Edwin who had submitted to King William, the danger of the local situation made the appointment of Norman overlords essential so, Roger de Montgomerie, 1st ,was given Shropshire (and Arundel). As palatine earl he acted with royal authority and administered all the royal manors in Shropshire. On the death of William the

5 Conqueror, Earl Roger rebelled against Rufus. Although the matter was settled, it was a pointer to the danger of creating palatine earldoms. Not long after the death of Earl Roger in 1094, no new Earl was appointed and the county was administered by its sheriff and a local justiciar.

Earl Roger granted 27 manors of which Clun was the largest to Robert (better known by his nickname Picot) de Say. Later, the Barony of Clun which constituted a single Marcher Lordship went to William FitzAlan (born in ) following his marriage in 1165 to Isabel de Say, daughter of Elias de Say, Lord of Clun. The Fitzalans became Earls of Arundel .They erected a castle, which was destroyed by Owen Glendwyr during his rebellion against Henry IV.

It then passed on to successive earls: Mary FitzAlan, daughter of Henry FitzAlan, 19 th Earl of Arundel, became the first wife of Thomas Howard, 4th 1535-1572) After the death of her brother Henry in 1556 she became heiress to the Arundel estates of her father; she died in 1557 after a year of marriage having given birth to a son, Philip Howard (1557-1595), who became 20th Earl of Arundel. It is from this marriage that the present Duke of Norfolk takes his name of FitzAlan- Howard.

By 1255 the FitzAlans were enforcing suits to the court of Clun, though Clun was no longer part of the county: by this time the “King’s writ did not run”.

The early Lords of Clun had the power of life and death and one William Kempe held his house by the service of carrying to Shrewsbury the heads of felons executed at Clun. The Normans established a Borough near the castle; Hundreds had their own courts but this declined in the 13 th century. The medieval Lords had a Portmoot to collect market dues, a Halmoot to deal with their Welsh tenants and a Swanmoot to enforce the Laws of Clun Forest. Later there was a Manorial Court, together with the Borough Court.

One interesting medieval tax was Amobyr , a tax paid to the lord of a Welsh manor on the occasion of a maiden's marriage. A maiden in Wales wished to wed, And the thought filled her father with dread: For the amobyr loomed And this tax, he assumed, Would betoken privation ahead. *** Shortly after the conquest, the Saxon hundred of Rinlow (Rinlau) was changed. It contained, inter alia , Clun, Clunbury, , Edgton, , , Kempton, , Lydham, Myndtown, Obley, Purslow and Wentnor . It, together with a few manors from Leintwardine Hundred became Purslow Hundred. The hundreds of Clun and Tempsiter were created from the western part of Rinlow Hundred. Later, Clun was joined with Purslow hundred.

Much of the manor of Tempsiter, in which the Redlake Valley lay, was to the west of the dyke, but with several townships to the east, the western lands being gained from the Welsh: the occupiers in 1292 paid £200 to the lord for right of chase and for his protection.

6 In 1317 the community of Tempsiter was oppressed by the bailiffs of Edmund Earl of Arundel.

In the reign of Henry 6 Shropshire magistrates were assigned to different hundreds. They were involved in the Beggars Act 1531 and Alehouse Act 1552. The formation of permanent divisions was based on the hundreds.

The power of Marcher lords to inflict capital punishment was taken away in the time of Henry 8 and Clunesland (the area covered by the river Clun), the hundreds of Clun and Purslow, were transferred to Montgomeryshire, except Bishops Castle. After a private act in Queen Mary’s time or by statute of Henry 8 – opinions vary – Clun was annexed to the County of Salop . According to the 1868 National Gazetteer Clun, a parish, market town, and borough, in the hundred of Clun comprises about 15 townships [Until recently they were Treverward, Purlogue, Menutton, Pentry Hodre, Hobarris, Hobendred, Spoad, Whitcot Keysett, Bicton, Eddicliffe, Shadwell, Whitcott Evan, Newcastle, Clun Borough, Guilden Down = 15]. At that time the government was then administered by two bailiffs, 30 burgesses, and a recorder appointed by Earl Powis,# as lord of the manor. It is the head of a deanery, of a Poor-law Union, and of a sub-registration district, embracing 19 parishes and townships. Until recently it was the seat of a hundred court, held every three weeks, for the recovery of small debts, but is now included in the new County Court district of Bishop's Castle. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of , value with the curacy of Chapel Lawn annexed, £680, in the patronage of Earl Powis, Lord of the Manor. # [ In 1763 the Walcot estate, which had been in the Walcot family since the 12 th century, was sold to Lord Clive, Governor of Bengal (Clive of India). In 1764-69 Lord Clive commissioned Sir William Chambers to completely remodel the house and stable block. His son married the heiress of the last Earl of Powis and thus inherited Powis Castle in Wales.] The church, dedicated to St. George, was once dependent on Wenlock Priory. The principal charity is a hospital founded in 1614 by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, who endowed it with tithes and lands in various parishes producing a clear annual revenue of £1,200.

The district in which Clun is situated formerly constituted a distinct hundred, called the hundred of Clun, and formed part of Wales. According to Leland, “... in the reign of Henry VII it comprised a great forest of red deer and roes, belonging to the Earl of Arundel, and until recently there was a large common known as Clun Forest; but because of disputes arising as to the enjoyment of the common rights, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1837 for its enclosure. In the vicinity are the Bury ditches, a British camp, and Caer Caradoc , where, it is claimed, the Roman general Ostorius defeated Caractacus. The fortification of the latter is one of the most curious and interesting in the country, and is in a good state of preservation, owing to the care taken of it by Earl Powis of Walcot, who has the manor and is owner of the property.”

The Ancient Parish Clun Church, dedicated to St George, has a fine squat Norman tower typical of border churches. The existence of a Saxon church on the site of the present church has been proved. It is assumed to be a Minster church (see above) as there are references to Clun and its churches after its dedication to Wenlock Priory (although eight are known of by name, there were probably more, so this does not preclude the

7 possibility of there having been a church or chapel at Hobendred prior to 1513 – the first firm evidence of a church here).

St. Milburga's monastery at Wenlock was the only pre-Conquest religious house in Shropshire and Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury, re-founded the house c.1079–82 as a Cluniac priory. The FitzAlan’s had an interest in the priory which included Isabel de Say's grant, in the time of Richard I (1189-99), of the church of Clun with all its chapels for the soul of her first husband William FitzAlan. The priory seems to have been at its most prosperous during the 13th century. Extensive rebuilding took place, the appropriation of the valuable Clun churches, c. 1220, helping to provide money for a fabric fund. During the 14th century first the threat and then the reality of seizure by the Crown evidently arrested development on the estates. Around the end of the 14 th century the total revenue from the temporalities was £219 11s. 1d, while spiritualities yielded £108, £50 of which came from Clun.

Parishes are the bottom rung of the ecclesiastical ladder. Parishes are organised into deaneries, which in turn are grouped into archdeaconries and finally into dioceses. From Norman times until the reformation there were 17 dioceses in England. Shropshire shared two, in the north and Hereford in the south. These boundaries reflected the tribal divisions of Mercia and predated the formation of counties. The boundaries of a rural deanery may have been due to the residual influence of early Minster church territories, dependant on the mother church of an early age. Today the Clun deanery extends from in the north, to Churchstoke in the East and Llanfairwaterdine in the south

Civil Administration Magistrates The part played by magistrates in the judicial system of England and Wales can be traced to the year 1195. Richard I in that year commissioned certain knights to preserve the peace in unruly areas. They were responsible to the King for ensuring that the law was upheld. They preserved the’King's Peace’, and were known as Keepers of the Peace.

The title Justices of the Peace derives from 1361, in the reign of Edward III. An Act of 1327 had referred to ‘good and lawful men’ to be appointed in every county in the land to ‘guard the Peace’. Justices of the Peace still retain (and occasionally use) the power conferred or re-conferred on them in 1361 to bind over unruly persons to be of good behaviour. For the following 600 years, and continuing today, Justices of the Peace have undertaken the greater part of the judicial work carried out in England and Wales on behalf of the Sovereign. For most of that time - until the invention of our modern system of local government in the 19th Century - JPs also administered the country at a local level. They fixed wages, built and controlled roads and bridges, and undertook to provide and supervise locally those services thought by the Monarch and by Parliament to be necessary for the welfare of the country. (Wikipedia article)

Poor Laws Tudor Poor Laws were the laws regarding poor relief in Kingdom of England around the time of the Tudor period (1485-1603), which ended with the passing of the Elizabethan Poor Law in 1601, a piece of legislation which codified the previous Tudor legislation

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The Vagabonds Act 1530 introduced a requirement for a license in order to beg, which prevented the able-bodied from begging. In 1536 a more severe law was passed stating that those caught outside of their parish without work would be punished by being whipped through the streets. The Poor Act 1551 was passed requiring parishes to build workhouses for the poor. In 1552 Registers of the Poor were established and parishes gained the power to raise local taxes through rates. In 1572 it was made compulsory for all to pay a local poor tax; the Poor Act 1575 was introduced making sure that each parish had a store of "wool, hemp, flax, iron" so that the poor could be set to work. The Act for the Relief of the Poor 1597 gave all parishes an Overseer of the Poor and the Vagabonds Act 1597 abolished the death penalty for vagrancy. In Victorian times the functions of Poor Law Unions were exercised by Boards of Poor Law Guardians, partly elected by ratepayers, but also including magistrates. They were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish Overseers of the Poor established under the old poor law, following the recommendations of the Poor Law Commission. Boards administered workhouses within a defined poor law union (add details of Clun PLU) consisting of a group of parishes, either by order of the Poor Law Commission, or by the common consent of the parishes. The Act ensured that no able-bodied person could get poor relief unless they went to live in special workhouses. The idea was that the poor were helped to support themselves. They had to work for their food and accommodation.

Until 1894, the Guardians consisted of justices of the peace along with other members elected by rate-payers, with higher rate-payers having more votes. JPs were removed and plural voting stopped in 1894, although no people actually receiving poor relief were able to vote.

The Unions were later used for other functions, such as civil registration, and were the basis of the rural sanitary districts established in 1875.

Vagrancy Laws From 1485 to 1662 Parliament passed over two dozen statutes dealing with the poor; only recently have the vagrancy laws been repealed. For example the 1531 law referred to above, an Act Concerning Punishment of Beggars and Vagabonds made1 provision for the whipping of the able-bodied beggars. Disabled to be surveyed and licensed to beg by the Justices of the Peace; if they leave the area they were licensed in, they were to be whipped or placed in the stocks.

Alehouse Act In 1552 the crown sought to regulate all alehouses although evidence from manorial records, for example, suggests that local controls were being implemented throughout the medieval period. However, the Alehouse Act 1552 was the first attempt to co- ordinate these existing controls and embody them in statute.

Under this act no-one was allowed to sell beer or ale without the consent of the local Justices of the Peace. Each licensee had to enter into a recognizance or bond which recognizances had to be certified at Quarter Sessions and were kept on record.

Hundred Courts Over time, the principal functions of the hundred became the administration of

9 law and the keeping of the peace. By the twelfth century the hundred court was held twelve times a year. This was later increased to being held fortnightly, although an ordinance of 1234 reduced the frequency to once every three weeks. In some hundreds, courts were held at a fixed place; while in others, courts moved with each sitting to a different location. The main duties of the hundred court were the maintenance of the frankpledge, a system of joint suretyship common in England throughout the Early Middle Ages. Where the hundred was under the jurisdiction of the crown, the chief magistrate was a sheriff. However, m any hundreds were in private hands, with the lordship of the hundred being attached to the principal manor of the area and becoming hereditary. Where a hundred was under a lord, a steward was appointed in place of a sheriff.

The importance of the hundred courts declined from the seventeenth century, and most of the powers were extinguished with the establishment of county courts in 1867. Although hundreds had no administrative or legal role after this date, they have never been formally abolished; Clun and Purslow were superseded as by the 19th century several different single-purpose subdivisions of counties, such as poor law unions, sanitary districts, and highway districts sprang up, filling the administrative role previously played by parishes and hundreds.

Tempsiter Court Roll from 1511 bearing the Name Will Jencks, who lived at Bryncambric (now Smiling Tree Farm) on the side of Caer Caradoc (Copyright Shropshire Archives)

In 1866 all land not part of an ecclesiastical parish was formed into civil parishes

Public Health Acts The first local boards were created under the Public Health Act 1848, partly as a result of the work of Sir Edwin Chadwick (1800-90). After the influenza and typhoid epidemics in 1837 and 1838, he was asked by the government to

10 carry out a new enquiry into sanitation. His report, The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population was published in 1842. In the report Chadwick argued that disease was directly related to living conditions and that there was a desperate need for public health reform.

The aim of the 1848 Act was to improve the sanitary condition of towns and populous places in England and Wales by placing the supply of water, sewerage, drainage, cleansing and paving under a single local body.

Sanitary Districts and Urban Districts The Public Health Act 1875 designated local government districts as urban sanitary districts, with the local board becoming the urban sanitary authority. The titles of the district and board did not change however, the local board assuming extra duties as a sanitary authority.

Local boards and local government districts were finally abolished by the Local Government Act 1894, when all urban sanitary districts became urban districts. A new urban district council was to govern the district. The new council was to be directly elected by all those entitled to vote in parliamentary elections, replacing the weighted property voting system used for local boards.

Sanitary districts were formed under the terms of the Public Health Acts 1873 and 1875 . Instead of creating new divisions, existing authorities were given additional responsibilities.

Rural sanitary districts were formed in all areas without a town governme nt. They followed the boundaries of existing poor law unions formed in 1837, less the areas of urban sanitary districts. Any subsequent change in the area of the union also changed the sanitary district. At the time of abolition in 1894, there were 572 rural sanitary districts. The rural sanitary authority consisted of the existing poor law guardians for the rural parishes involved. The Local Government Act 1894 brought an end to sanitary districts in England and Wales. Rural sanitary districts were replaced by rural districts, for the first time with a directly elected council.

The 1888 Local Government (England and Wales) proposed the creation of elected county councils to take over the administrative functions of the magistrates of the Quarter Sessions courts with each county was to be divided into urban and rural districts, based on existing sanitary districts, governed by a district council. The county and district councils were to consist partly of directly elected councillors and partly of selected councillors, chosen by the elective councillors. The counties to be used for local government were to be the historic counties of England and Wales Rural districts

There were 574 rural sanitary districts in 1893 and the number of rural districts formed by the Act was 692. Rural district councils consisted of a chairman and councillors. The councillors were elected for a three-year term in a similar way to councillors in urban districts. They were elected for parishes or groupings of parishes, and were also the representatives for those

11 areas on the board of guardians. The Local Government Act 1894 . The legislation introduced elected councils at district and parish level.

The principal effects of the act were: The creation a system of urban and rural districts with elected councils. These along, with the town councils of municipal boroughs created earlier in the century, formed a second tier of local government below the existing county councils. The establishment of elected parish councils in rural areas. The reform of the boards of guardians of poor law unions. The new district councils were based on the existing urban and rural sanitary districts. Many of the latter had lain in more than one ancient county, whereas the new rural districts were to be in a single administrative county. Under the LGA of 1972 a uniforms 2-tier system was created whereby counties had county councils divided into districts. Metropolitan boroughs generally had a minimum population of 250K, with districts generally over 40K. In Shropshire, borough councils were still permitted, e.g. Shrewsbury and Atcham BDC Clun Rural Sanitary District was operational in 1875; in 1894 it became Clun Rural District Council which eventually became Clun and Bishop’s Castle Rural District Council from 1967 – 1974 when it gave way to South Shropshire District Council. In 2009 the SSDC was abolished when Shropshire went unitary with the formation of District Council records are held at Shropshire Archives: • Clun Rural District Council, 1837-1975 (ref: DA19) • Clun and Bishop's Castle Rural District Council, 1967-1974 (ref: DA31) [ CHECK DATES AGAINST ABOVE ]

History of Voting In early times two knights from each shire or county were elected by members of the local county courts to be sent to the Commons. In later years they were joined in the Commons by two representatives from each borough or town .

By 1430 only owners of freehold land generating an income of over forty shillings a year were eligible to vote in county elections. In 1800 you had to be male and you had to be wealthy. The 1832 Reform Act extended the right to vote to include certain leaseholders and householders . The 1867 Second Reform Act went further, although it was still based upon wealth, and extended the voting regulations in counties and boroughs. The 1872 Secret Ballot Act brought about voting by secret ballot. The 1884 Representation of the People Act enabled any man who occupied property or land with an annual rateable value of £10 to vote.

The 1918 Representation of the People Act allowed all men over the age of 21 to vote. Women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote and women could sit in the House of Commons as MPs. The 1928 Representation of the People Act gave women the same voting rights as men, allowing all adults

12 over the age of 21 to vote. The 1969 Representation of the People Act lowered the voting age for all men and women to 18 years of age.

There were different qualifications relating to general, county and parish elections A ward in the is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography. Chapel Lawn is a ward of Clun parish in the parliamentary constituency

Electoral Registers first appeared in 1832 and voting by Wards did not start until after WW2.

May 2011

13 A BACKGROUND TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADDENDA

Contents

11 1 - District Councils 16 2 - List of Incumbents of the Parish of Clun

14

District Councils

District Councils were formed in 1893. The first was the Clun RDC 1893-1967 and this was followed by the Clun and Bishop’s Castle RDC with headquarters in Bishop’s Castle. This in turn became part of South Shropshire District Council which was disbanded in 2010 when Shropshire went Unitary. SSDC records are not yet in Archives. Some references to Chapel Lawn follow, together with the DA31 catalogue.

DA 19 Clun Rural District Council 1893-1967 DA19/151/42 & 44 1913-15 Papers relating to Chapel Lawn and Pentre water Supply scheme DA19/152/13 1923 Ditto DA19/154/1 c 1947 Offa’s Dyke footpath route &c (several similar refs) DA19/505/34 1934-44 Valuation List Clun area DA19710/2/39 06/1960 Alteration to Farm Buildings, Camp Farm, Mrs F Middleton DA19710/2/110 07/1965 Conversion of Barn to Bungalow, New House Obley, E Grubb & Sons DA19/710/2/170 06/1966 Barn and Cattle Shed, Llynaven, W J S Wilding

DA31 Clun & Bishop’s Castle RDC 1967-1974 DA31/134/1-3 Registration of Common Land including Black Hill and Pentre Hill DA31/135/7 Common Land Correspondence DA31/710/344 Jul 1971 Alteration to Pump House Purlogue H Richards DA31/710/361 Sep 71 Storm porch at Pentre Hodre Cottage J G Macturk DA31/710605 Feb 74 Extension ditto H M Macturk

2 - List of Incumbents of the Parish of Clun

The early Church played an important part in local administration and the Minster Church of Clun would be no exception. The known incumbents are listed below: The Church of Clun was probably of Saxon Foundation, the mother church of a vast parish. The names of the early incumbents are lost. Those given below have been preserved in the Registry of the Cathedral Church of Hereford.

RECTOR Walter died or resigned 1221 VICARS Initiated Vicar Presented 1221 Radulf de Clumbiry ? ? Robert de Ver. ? 1308 John de Clone Prior and Convent of Wenlock 1349 Roger Pagyn The King ? John Barbour resigned 1406 ? ? Sir Mili de Byreton ? 1406 Sir David Taty ? 1407 Sir John Mersel Prior and Convent of Wenlock

15 1411 Gervase de Clone The same 1440 Sir John ap Jenkyn The same ? Sir Henry ap David ? 1479 Sir Hugh Lowe The same 1487 Sir John Clone Sir Hugh Clone ? Sir Matthew Morys ? 1544 Master Hugh Palmer S.T.B John Cragelle granted with Richard Crosse and John Morris laics of Wenlock Priory ? Sir John the Parson 1552 ? ? David Matthew ? 1556 Robert Jones The Queen Patron: Thomas Haveley Esq ‘ut creditur’ 1596 Erasmis Powell ? 1637 Thomas Froysett, ejected 1662 ? Humphrey Walcot Esq 1663 Joseph Jackson ? 1671 Thomas Rogers D.D John Walcot Esq Canon resid. of Hereford – buried 1709. ? Thomas Taylor ? 1713 John Acton M.A., LL.D. ? 1745 Humphrey Walcot John Walcot Esq 1766 Robert Clive Robert, Lord Clive PREB of Westminster & Archdeacon of Salop 1782 George James Edmonds Edward, Lord Clive 1805 Christopher Swainson Edward, Earl of Powis 1833 The Hon George Herbert Edward James Earl of Powis Dean of Hereford 1868 Charles Warner Edward James Earl of Powis Prebendary of Hereford 1898 Alfred Ernest Lloyd Kenyon George Charles Earl of Powis 1908 Richard Dighton Machen The same 1920 William Maurice Bonner Lutener The same 1927 Joshua Harrison The same Richard Stafford Tyndale 1945 Haslehurst M.A. ,B.D. The same 1952 Dewi Llewellyn Jones B.A., M.B.E George Charles Earl of Powis 1961 Riou George Benson Q.G.M. Collated by The Lord Bishop Patron the 4 th Earl of Powis of Hereford Prebendary de Inkberrow in 1979 Ernest J Buckley M.a. ,B. Litt The Earl of Powis 1988 Barry Irons C.A. ( Priest in Charge ) Suspended Benefice 1991 Richard Tom Shaw A.K.C. The Earl of Powis

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