THANINGTON WITHOUT CIVIL PARISH AND COUNCIL AS SEEN FROM THEIR MINUTE BOOKS 1894-1994 - AN INITIAL ASSESSMENT By Clive. H. Church ‘Rufflands’ 72A New House Lane, Canterbury CT 4 7BJ 01227-458437 07950-666488
[email protected] Originally posted on the website of Thanington Without Civil Parish Council on 4 April 2005 in PDF and HMTL versions. Subsequently updated and illustrated in 2014. For the original see http://www.thanington-pc.gov.uk/pchistory/history.html 1 THANINGTON WITHOUT CIVIL PARISH AND COUNCIL, AS SEEN FROM THEIR MINUTE BOOKS, 1894-1994 Tracing the development of a parish and its council is not easy. Neither constituents nor historians pay them much attention. Despite its importance in the past, local government is not now well regarded thanks to the centralization and mediaization of British political culture. Moreover, although there are many sources, including the recollections of parishioners, they are often not easily available. And memories are often fallible. However, we can get some way towards understanding them through their minute books. For, while these are far from complete records, they do allow us an insight into the organization and attitudes of a council as it emerged from the changing pattern of local government in England. For civil parishes have never been able to decide their own organization. This has been laid down by national legislation. In other words, they are creatures of Parliament. In the case of Thanington Without the minute books allow us to trace the evolution of both the original Parish Meeting and its successor and, after 1935, of the Parish Council itself.