Victoria County History: DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Overview

Lutterworth’s institutional structure resembled that of a village, with three-weekly manor courts, and twice-yearly views of frankpledge, presided over by the lord’s bailiff. The only court rolls to survive before the 18th century are from 1562, 1564 and 1657.1 Many survive from 1732 to 1857.2

One of the town’s two medieval religious guilds evolved into what became the Town Estate, which repaired the roads and funded town ‘improvements’.3 Town-masters’ accounts survive from 1707 to 1726 and 1761 to 1872.4

Constables’ accounts survive from 1651 to 1707 and 1809 to 1832.5 Their duties in 1657 included reporting ‘Popish Recusants’, houses erected without the statutory 4 a. of land, unlicensed alehouses, people playing unlawful games and those buying or selling corn before the market opened.6 The accounts include expenditure in the 1650s on a cuck-stool (ducking stool) with wheel, a whipping post and a cage (lock-up).7

Vestry minutes survive from 1789 to 1960.8 The town also had a Nuisances Committee from 1855, but it had little power to effect sanitary improvements. There was never a burial board. Town (parish) council minutes survive from 1894.9

Lutterworth was the main market town in Guthlaxton Hundred, and had a minor administrative role in the county in the 14th and 15th centuries. It became the centre of a Poor Law Union in 1835, and a Rural District Council in 1894. It hosted petty sessions and a county court from the 18th century, and magistrates’ courts until 1998. Since 1974, Lutterworth has been within Council area, based in Market Harborough.

Manorial government

The manor was said to be held with the liberties pertaining to the crown (regale) in 1279.10 There are few relevant records from the Middle Ages, but the revenue from the courts and views of frankpledge and the returns of the clerks of the market of the Marshalsea of the royal household in 1406–7,11 indicate that it would have been quite a busy court. There were three tithings in 1562, for the town, Moorbarns and the village of Catthorpe.12

1 TNA, SC 2/188/83; SC 2/188/84; Warws. RO, CR 2017/M34. 2 Warws. RO, CR 2017/M35–7. 3 ROLLR, DE 914/2, f. 1. 4 ROLLR, DE 2559/102; DE 914/1–2. 5 ROLLR, DE 2559/24–25. 6 ROLLR, DE 2559/24. 7 ROLLR, DE 2559/24, for example, entries 3 Apr. 1654, 20 May 1657, 10 June 657, 25 June 1657 (cuckstool); 8 Apr. 1657 (whipping post); 2 Oct. 1655, 21 Feb. 1659 (cage). 8 ROLLR, DE 1463/6; DE 4336/33/1–8. 9 ROLLR, DE 2254/1–13. 10 Rot. Hund., I, 239; Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. B 350, f. 23; Nichols, History, IV, 247–8. 11 TNA, E 101/258/2; above Economic History. 12 TNA, SC 2/183/83.

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The profits of jurisdiction in the courts returned 25s. in 1322.13 This had increased to £8 13s. 6d. in 1339 (8.6 per cent of the manorial income).14 In 1359, the two views of frankpledge yielded 57s. 7d.15 In 1445, the pleas and perquisites of the courts and the view of frankpledge were said to be worth nothing beyond the fee and expenses of the steward.16 The perquisites of the courts returned 51s. 10d. in 1512–13 (2.7 per cent of the manorial income of £94 3s. 9¾d).17

The manor court held a keen interest in prosecuting illegal gambling in the 1560s. Seven innkeepers each paid 12d. for ‘keping & usinge unlawful games’ in their house in 1562, and a further four men paid 4d. for ‘playing at the shovelboard’. Four of the innkeepers were amerced again for the same offence in 1564, when ten people also paid sums from 4d. to 12d. for playing ‘Shovegroat’.18 Isaac Billington’s inn had a room known as the ‘Shoveboard chamber’ in 1676.19

Two bread-weighers and two ale-tasters were appointed in 1657.20 In 1734, the two bread-weighers also weighed butter, and two ale-tasters, two flesh- and fish-tasters, two leather-sealers, two constables, two townmasters, two headboroughs, two pinders and two neatherds were also chosen.21 Pump-reeves were not appointed that year, but twenty were appointed for ten street pumps in 1731, with duties probably including washing the streets at the end of every market and fair.22 The number of constables had increased to four by 1751.23 A town crier was also elected in 1857, when there was still one pinder, despite the open fields having been inclosed.24

Almost the only presentments made in the 19th century were for nuisances, including steps and bow windows which projected beyond the building line, and cellar windows. The latter may be an indication of overcrowding, with cellars turned into tenements. Penalties for infringements ranged from 1d. to 3s.25 Some retailers may have regarded this as a small annual cost for the benefit of a bow window to display their stock. The manor court also acted as a quasi-planning authority. A special court met in 1802 to inspect the alterations made by wine merchant George Smith to his property in Church Street, and to consider further proposed alterations. The jurors specified in detail how far the building could be extended, and ordered Smith to pay an annual fee of 3s. for the privilege of encroaching upon the street.26

The manor had two ovens, worth 10s. yearly in 1316,27 and in 1360.28 One oven, worth 6s. 5d., was leased out for 40s. in 1322, when it was repaired with stone and thatch.29 The smaller of the two manorial ovens fell out of use by 1648, and the larger one could only bake half of the town’s

13 TNA, SC/1146/17. 14 G.A. Holmes, The Estates of the Higher Nobility in Fourteenth-century (Cambridge, 1957), 147, citing TNA, SC 11/801. 15 TNA, SC 6/908/33. 16 Cal. Inq. p.m., XXVI, 195–6. 17 TNA, SC 6/HENVIII/1824. 18 TNA, SC 2/183/83; SC 2/183/84; B. Waddell, ‘Governing England through the manor courts, 1550–1850’, Historical Journal, 55 (2012), 287. 19 ROLLR, PR/I/78/121. 20 Warws. RO, CR 2017/M34. 21 Warws. RO, CR 2017/M35/4. 22 Warws. RO, CR 2017/M35/2. 23 Warws. RO, CR 2017/M35/9. 24 Warws. RO, CR 2017/M37/3. 25 Warws. RO, CR 2017/M/36/17–23; CR 2017/M37/1–2, 11. 26 Warws. RO, CR 2017/M35/56. 27 Cal. Inq. p.m., VI, 36 28 TNA, C 135/152/5. 29 TNA, SC 6/1146/17.

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requirement. At least 16 and possibly as many as 30 of the ‘better sort’ had their own private ovens by 1659.30

Town government

The Town Estate The origins of the Town Estate probably lay in Edmund Muryell’s endowment of a chantry in 1478, which stipulated that rents from landholdings were to be kept in the ‘Com[m]on box’ of the town until they were sufficient to employ a priest.31 Other gifts of lands and tenements by Richard Palmer, Roger Smith and Alice Smith in 1484–5, Edward Wells in 1489–90, John Hutt in 1495–6, William Cocks in 1497–8 and William Pawley in 1505–6 were later recorded as belonging to the town.32 Freehold land in the town valued at 11s. 10d. in 1518 and owned by the Master of the Guild, was held by the ‘Master of the Towne’ in 1536.33

By 1540, ‘every man in the town’ was ’compelled’ to pay his share of the cost of keeping the bridges and pavements in repair.34 Gifts for secular town works, including bridges and pavements, were made by Sir William Feilding in 1518,35 John Paybody in 1520,36 John Chapleyn in 1524,37 John Wheatley in 1563,38 and Francis Peake in 1579.39

A new feoffment for the Town Estate was made in 1710, restating that two town-masters should be chosen annually at the manor court, and present accounts annually. Leases were to be granted for no more than 21 years, and approved at a meeting of the inhabitants.40

Most of the Town Estate’s income was spent on repairing the roads, and there was no separate ‘surveyor of the highways’.41 By 1839, when annual rental income was £241 18s., all the principal streets had been made up with the ‘best materials’, the footways were paved or flagged and had kerb stones.42 Other occasional expenditure included the construction of almshouses and a workhouse in 1721 on a site in Hartshall Lane (later George Street),43 demolishing and rebuilding the schoolhouse in 1781, and building a new workhouse in 1801.44

A new scheme was agreed by the charity commissioners in 1871. The assets were vested in the official trustee for charity land, and the office of town-master lapsed. The new trustees would comprise the rector, churchwardens, any magistrate resident in Lutterworth and nine others chosen at a vestry meeting from among those who paid annual rates of £25. Income could be used to

30 TNA, E 134/1658-9/Hil 16, mm. 5–6; Goodacre, Transformation, 167–8. 31 Warws. RO, CR 2017/D199; above, Religious History, Religious Life before 1547. 32 ROLLR, DE 4336/33/1. The list was displayed on a wall in the church, extant in 1790: J. Nichols, Antiquities in Leicestershire, being the 8th volume of the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica (1790), 1139–40. 33 TNA, WARD 2/6/241/22, ff. 2, 5. 34 TNA, PROB 11/31/690, f. 2. 35 Nichols, Antiquities, 1140. 36 ROLLR, Will register 1515-26, ff. 374–374v. 37 TNA, PROB 11/21/428. 38 ROLLR, PR/I/255/86. 39 TNA, PROB 11/62/73. 40 Nichols, History, IV, 254–6; Rpt of Charity Commissioners (Parl. Papers 1839 [163], xv), p pp. 129–32. 41 ROLLR, DE 2559/102; DE 914/1–2. 42 Rpt of Charity Commissioners, p. 131–3. 43 ROLLR, DE 2559/102. 44 ROLLR, DE 914/1.

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maintain public buildings, up to £40 could be spent annually on lighting the streets and annual donations could be made towards the education or healthcare needs of the poorer classes.45 The following year the trustees provided £250 towards new schools.46 The churchwardens ceased to be trustees from 1894, and the parish council took over the power of appointing the elected trustees.47

Later expenditure included street-name signs in 1895, donations towards the fire brigade in 1901 and 1913, towards widening Spital Bridge in 1910 and street alterations in 1916 to create room for a war memorial. The town estate purchased the market tolls in 1923.48

A further revision of the charity’s objects in 1972 reduced the number of trustees to nine, including five elected trustees, and gave them the power to make grants and gifts of furniture, fuel and clothing to individual residents in need.49 The charity’s income in 2019 was £71,224, and it held property assets valued at £1,361,285.50 Town Hall

The earl of Denbigh agreed to let a piece of land on High Street in 1834 for a ‘market place and town hall’.51 The challenge of designing a building for a triangular site on sloping ground was accepted by Joseph Hansom, the architect of Birmingham Town Hall.52 His Greek Revival design provided a corn exchange and open market hall at ground level, with an almost rectangular hall and a small committee room above. The upper floor exterior included a full-width pediment facing High Street, with four Ionic columns intended to frame a statue of Wyclif.53 Donations enabled the land to be purchased for £420, but most of the building cost of £1,200 was borrowed.54 No statue was ever erected.

The building opened in 1836 and was managed by the town-masters. The upper floor was used for public meetings and, until 1906, for fortnightly petty sessions and a monthly county court.55 It was refurbished in 1907, when the ground floor was enclosed (Figure 1).56 The upper floor was ‘reputed to be one of the best dance floors in the county’ (Figure 18).57

Modernisation costing c.£45,000 was required in the 1980s to meet revised building regulations. A separate Town Hall charity was established in 1983 with a stronger and more representative management structure, under a scheme by which one-third of the surplus income of the Town

45 Leic. Chron., 30 Nov. 1872. 46 Above, Social History, Education. 47 Nuneaton Advertiser, 12 Jan. 1895; J. Sumpter, A Brief Historical Review of the Charity known as the Lutterworth Town Estate Trust (Lutterworth, c.1926), 7. 48 Sumpter, Brief Historical Review, 11; above, Economic History, Retail and Services. 49 Coventry Evening Telegraph, 17 Mar. 1972. 50 Rpt and Financial Statements 2019, https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity- details/?regid=217609&subid=0 (accessed 31 Mar. 2020). 51 Lincs. Arch., COR.B. 5/5/3/2/1. 52 Lutterworth museum, signed plans dated June and July 1835; P. Harris, The Architectural Achievement of Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-1882), Designer of the Hansom Cab, Birmingham Town Hall, and Churches of the Catholic revival (Lampeter, 2010), 17–51, 79–83. 53 Pevsner, Leics. and Rutl., 301; NHLE, No. 1211129, Town Hall (accessed 31 Mar. 2020). 54 W. White, Hist., Gaz. and Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (Sheffield, 1846), 401. 55 White, Hist., Gaz. and Dir. (1846), 401; Ibid (1877), 522; Harris, Architectural Achievement, 95–6; Morning Post, 8 Feb. 1873; Leic. Jnl, 21 Feb 1890; Leic. Daily Post, 9 Mar. 1906. 56 Harris, Architectural Achievement, 96. 57 Sumpter, Brief Historical Review, 10.

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Estates would pass to the Town Hall charity each year.58 The refurbished building reopened in 1986.59 Later changes in the 2010s improved disabled access.

Figure 18: Town Hall, main upper room in 2015. The Royal Arms on the right reference the room’s use as a magistrates’ and county court until 1906. Parish Government before 1894

The Vestry The main responsibility of Lutterworth’s vestry before 1840 was the administration of the poor law. Other concerns included law and order, street lighting and (until 1948) the fire brigade. A night watch was agreed in 1789 and ‘places of confinement’ were built in 1812.60

The Administration of the Poor Law before 1840

Lutterworth was notably successful in obtaining annual contributions towards the cost of poor relief in the 17th century from the owners of land in neighbouring depopulated parishes.61 An agreement of 1693 shared the remaining cost between the occupiers of land in the parish and the owners of properties in the town ‘according to the intrinsique value of their holdings’.62

A workhouse was built on George’s Lane in 1721, and the parish paid a fixed sum to a contractor to feed and clothe its residents.63 The poor rate was cut by one quarter, but the contractor pulled out

58 Lutterworth Independent, Mar. 1983, July 1983, Nov. 1983; http://www.lutterworthtownhall.org.uk/trustees.htm; Lutterworth Town Hall Charity, rpt and accts 2017, https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=515314&subid=0 (both accessed 31 Mar. 2020). 59 Harris, Architectural Achievement, 97. 60 ROLLR, DE 1463/6, mins 7 Oct. 1789; 31 Jan. 1812. 61 Above, Social History, Social Character. 62 ROLLR, QS 6/1/2/11, f. 157. 63 ROLLR, DE 2559/102.

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before the end of the term. The workhouse had c.20 residents in 1724. Costs were offset by work undertaken, including spinning and ‘winding quills’ (winding yarn on bobbins, for weavers).64

The cost of poor relief rose from £309 10s. in 1777,65 to £1,017 in 1803.66 Half of the workhouse was rebuilt by the town-masters in 1801–2.67 A resident master was appointed, with a salary paid by the parish.68 The workhouse was enlarged in 1810–12, and the parishes of Bruntingthorpe, North Kilworth and agreed to share the building for their non-able-bodied poor.69 Kilby, Peatling Parva, Shearsby, Swinford and Walton (in Knaptoft) joined this union in 1819.70 The workhouse had between 20 and 30 inmates in 1834, mostly women, children and the infirm.71 The town also owned five houses on Bakehouse Lane and 13 on Ely Lane and Webbs Yard, off Ely Lane, which it used to house able-bodied poor.72

Public Health

The Town Estate had laid sewers in part of the town by 1839.73 A Nuisances Committee of seven people was established in 1855, and sat fortnightly.74 Following a number of deaths from ‘fever’ in 1856, the Nuisances Committee recommended laying sewers in Bakehouse Lane (Baker Street) and Ely Lane (Station Road). The Town Estate could afford to pay no more than one-third, and ratepayers refused to cover the remainder, obtaining legal opinion that laying sewers was beyond the committee’s powers.75 Under the Sanitary Act of 1866, the Lutterworth (Poor Law Union) Board of Guardians became responsible for all public health matters across the union,76 but their powers were also limited, as were those of the vestry.77 It is impossible to identify from surviving records exactly when sewers were laid and how they were funded, but most of Lutterworth appears to have had sewers by 1876,78 although the discharge was into the river before the sewage works were built in 1901.

Lutterworth never had a burial board. The town’s nonconformists tried to push for a cemetery, but St Mary’s churchyard was extended when required, reaching 4 a. (1.6 ha) in the 1980s, a legacy of the large glebe.79 The question was revisited as a result of the town’s growth in the closing years of

64 Anon., An Account of Several Workhouses for Employing and Maintaining the Poor (, 1725), at http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Lutterworth/ (accessed 2 Apr. 2020). 65 Rpt. of Cttee of Inspect and Consider Poor Returns (Parl. Papers 1776–7), p. 384. 66 Abstract of Poor Rate Returns (Parl. Papers 1803–04 (175) xiii), p. 264. 67 ROLLR, DE 914/1; Rpt of Charity Commissioners, p. 132. 68 Nichols, History, IV, 256. 69 DE 1463/6, mins 31 Oct. 1810; 24 Oct 1812. 70 Lutterworth Museum, 4D 60/342. 71 Rpt of the Poor Law Commission (Parl. Papers 1834 (44), xxvii), App. B, p. 284. 72 ROLLR, DE 1463/6, mins 25 Jan. 1803, 26 Mar. 1806, 3 Mar. 1837; Rpt of Charity Commissioners, pp. 140– 41; above, Social History, Charities for the Poor. 73 Rpt of Charity Commissioners, p. 131–3. 74 ROLLR, DE 4336/33/1, 14 Dec. 1855; Mercury, 6 Sept. 1856. 75 ROLLR, DE 4336/33/1, 30 Dec. 1856; Leic. Jnl, 28 Nov. 1856; 12 Dec. 1856, 19 Dec. 1856, 2 Jan. 1857, 16 Jan 1857. 76 Leic. Chron., 11 May 1867. 77 Leic. Jnl, 7 Oct. 1870; 14 Oct. 1870; 13 July 1877. 78 ROLLR, DE 1379/413, pp. 135, 137, 148, 156. 79 Leic. Chron., 27 Jun. 1868; Leic. Jnl, 16 Apr. 1869; Leic. Chron., 27 May 1899; burial register, 1909, 1939.

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the 20th century, and Lutterworth Town Council acquired land and opened Leaders Farm cemetery (1.2 ha) on the junction of Coventry Road and Brookfield Way, c.2013.80 Lutterworth Poor Law Union

Lutterworth Poor Law union was formed in 1835, comprising 30 parishes in Leicestershire, and Warwickshire.81 Lutterworth had two guardians on the board, while the other parishes had one each. The Union workhouse, for 200 inmates, was built on Woodmarket in 1839–40 for £5,000. The architects were George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt.82

A meeting of ratepayers in 1840 approved the sale of the parish cottages in Ely Lane, Webbs Yard and Bakehouse Lane.83 From the net proceeds of £582 8s. 3d., the Poor Law Commissions agreed that £110 could be used to repay borrowing taken to purchase two of the cottages, and £337 7s. 3d. used to repay the parish share of the cost of building the Union workhouse.84 The remaining £135 1s. represented charitable donations which the overseers had invested in the properties, and was retained by the Poor Law Union.85

The union workhouse was a Public Assistance Institution from 1929 until 1948, when it became a care home for the elderly, known as Woodmarket House. The buildings were demolished c.1970, and a modern care home was built on the site.86

Medieval county government The assizes of the Justices Itinerant met in Lutterworth during the 1340s, the only venue in Leicestershire to host them apart from itself.87 Some of the Guthlaxton Hundred courts were held in Lutterworth during the 1450s and 1460s.88 Local Government after 1894

Lutterworth Parish Council

Lutterworth’s first parish council, elected in 1894, had eight members.89 The first chairman was barrister Lupton Topham Topham of Lutterworth House.90 A wealthy and active Town Estate provided many of the facilities the town required, but the elected council provided a different perspective on the town’s needs. Two of the council’s early and important achievements were the provision of allotment gardens, and (through the parochial committee, which comprised the parish

80 Leic. Mercury, 19 Mar. 1991; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-15611604; https://www.lutterworth.org.uk/leaders-farm-cemetery.html; https://pa2.harborough.gov.uk/online- applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=M610P9HWGJ000 (accessed 2 Apr. 2020). 81 Youngs, Admin. Units, II, 693. 82 http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Lutterworth/ (accessed 2 Apr. 2020). 83 ROLLR, DE 1463/6, mins 3 Mar. 1837, 20 Mar. 1840, 14 May 1841; Leic. Chron., 9 May 1840. 84 ROLLR, DE 1379/37/2; ROLLR, DE 1463/6, min. 14 May 1841. 85 Digest of Endowed Charities (Parl. Papers 1867–8 (433)) pp. 678–9. 86 http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Lutterworth/ (accessed 2 Apr. 2020). 87 TNA, JUST 1/1400, m. 164. 88 TNA, SC 2/183/69–70. 89 Nuneaton Advertiser, 22 Dec 1894. 90 Rugby Advertiser, 27 Apr. 1895; TNA, RG 13/2951/16/24.

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councillors and Lutterworth’s two district councillors) a recommendation to the RDC in 1913 to provide working-class housing.91

The parish council chose to redesignate itself as a town council in 1974, with a mayor rather than a chairman.92 There were 13 town councillors in 1975.93 This number had increased to 16 by 2020, when Lutterworth was divided into four wards. Committees dealt with allotments, recreation areas properties, public conveniences and town events. The council also made recommendations to the district council on planning applications and highways.94

Lutterworth Rural District Council

Lutterworth RDC was formed in 1894 and comprised the Leicestershire parishes in Lutterworth Poor Law Union, with the exception of Wigston Parva, and the addition of .95 Eight candidates were nominated at the first election, for two positions.96 Lutterworth’s two guardians of the poor (William Footman and Richard Sansome) were defeated, and Lupton Topham was elected with Arthur Bannister, the former proprietor of the steam brewery.97 Both were ‘ardent Conservatives’.98

The RDC constructed a small sewage works off Moorbarns Lane in 1901.99 This was extended in 1935, and replaced by larger works to the south-west in 1971.100

On the recommendation of the parochial committee, Lutterworth RDC agreed in 1913 to provide 30 houses for the working classes between Leicester Road and the New Street factory.101 This became Crescent Road and was one of the earliest council house developments in Leicestershire, although the impact of the First World War resulted in only 23 houses being completed by 1915.102 The RDC purchased 38 a. to the west of Leicester Road in 1919 for a further 200 houses, and appointed Walter Bedingfield as architect.103 Plans for the first 54 were approved in 1920, and the tender of builder Peter Rourke was accepted.104 Parochial committee recommendations were invariably agreed by the RDC, but not minuted by them, and parochial committee minutes survive only for 1900 to 1927 and 1947 to 1949.105 More houses were built by the RDC in the 1930s and 1940s, the latter including prefabricated homes.106 The last of the prefabricated buildings were demolished

91 Above, Social History, Communal Life; Leic. Chron., 19 Jan. 1895; 27 Apr. 1895. 92 Coventry Eve. Telegraph, 10 June 1974; 12 June 1974. 93 Lutterworth Independent, July 1975. 94 https://www.lutterworth.org.uk/committees.html (accessed 6 Apr. 2020). 95 Youngs, Admin. Units, II, 693, 695. 96 Leic. Chron., 8 Dec. 1894. 97 Leic. Chron., 22 Dec. 1894. 98 Rugby Advertiser, 10 Feb. 1928; 5 Dec. 1908. 99 Rugby Advertiser, 27 July 1901. 100 Rugby Advertiser, 9 Aug. 1935; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 15 July 1971. 101 Leic. Daily Post, 7 Feb. 1913; 4 Apr. 1913; 19 Sept. 1913; 4 Dec. 1913. 102 ROLLR, DE 1379/457, pp. 2–3. 103 ROLLR, DE 1379/450, pp. 4–5, 8, 37. 104 ROLLR, DE 1379/340, pp. 43, 46. 105 ROLLR, DE 1379/454–7; DE 2107/9. 106 J.S. Dodge, A Look at Lutterworth 2000, (Lutterworth 1999), 93; B. Wilkinson, ‘Lutterworth’s Prefabs’, Lutterworth Local History Group Journal (2002), 9–10.

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between 1970 and 1972.107 In 1972, the RDC owned 594 houses in Lutterworth, including 431 built after 1939, the latter number including 16 ‘flatlets’ for older people.108

Council meetings were originally held in the board room at the Workhouse.109 The RDC moved to premises in The Narrows in 1931,110 before purchasing the much larger Lutterworth Hall on Woodmarket in 1939.111

Harborough District Council was created in 1974 by merging the rural districts of Market Harborough, Lutterworth and Billesdon, and the urban district of Market Harborough.112 The new council met in Market Harborough. Lutterworth Hall was sold in 1979.113 Lutterworth was represented by four councillors in 2019, from two reconstituted wards, Lutterworth East and Lutterworth West.114

The A5 Partnership

Harborough District Council is a member of the A5 Partnership, together with other county and district councils from Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire, four Local Enterprise Partnerships (voluntary partnerships between local government and businesses) in Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Birmingham, the umbrella Councils forum and Highways England. Together they are responsible for agreeing a consistent local government strategy to support economic growth within a 62-mile corridor of land along the Northamptonshire to Staffordshire section of Watling Street. The first strategy document was issued in 2011, and a later plan was agreed for 2018 to 2031.115 The contribution of district council members to this forum is clearly important to Lutterworth, given the projected 11,000 employees following further development at Magna Park logistics estate and the heavy vehicular traffic along Watling Street and its link road though Lutterworth parish to the M1 motorway. Public Services

Fire services The lower floor of the ‘church-gates’ school housed the parish fire engine in 1838.116 The parish council took over the management of the fire brigade in 1895, and introduced a scale of charges for sending an engine outside the town (including to farms within the parish).117 With only a short hose, the equipment was inadequate for large blazes.118

107 B. Wilkinson, ‘Lutterworth’s Prefabs’, Lutterworth Local History Group Journal (2002), 9–10. 108 Rural District Council of Lutterworth, Handbook (1971–2), unpaginated. 109 Kelly’s Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (1899), 286. 110 Rugby Advertiser, 27 Feb. 1931. 111 Rugby Advertiser, 12 May 1939; Leic. Daily Mercury, 16 June 1939; 8 Sept. 1939; T. Bailey, Lutterworth in Wartime: The Impact of World War Two on a Rural Area of England (Lutterworth, 2014), 36. 112 Youngs, Admin Units, II, 696. 113 Coventry Evening Telegraph, 2 Nov. 1979. 114 https://www.harborough.gov.uk/homepage/104/district_council_election_results_-_may_2019 (accessed 6 Apr. 2020). 115 A5 Partnership, Draft Strategy for Growth, 2018–2031, 160, 209, 211. http://politics.leics.gov.uk/documents/s136054/A5%20Strategy%20Appx%20B%20- %20Current%20working%20draft%20of%20revised%20A5%20Strategy.pdf (accessed 20 Feb. 2021). 116 Rpt of the Charity Commissioners, p. 133. 117 Rugby Advertiser, 4 May 1895; 17 Aug. 1895. 118 Yorkshire Post, 6 Feb. 1936.

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County councils became responsible for fire services from 1948.119 Lutterworth fire station moved to premises adjacent to the RDC offices at Lutterworth Hall, and subsequently to Gilmorton Road, c.1979. In 2020 the station is part of Leicestershire Fire and Rescue service, and is staffed by a mix of salaried and on-call employees.

Police

Figure 19: Lutterworth Police Station, built in 1842 (south elevation)

Lutterworth Police Station was built in 1842 on the junction of Leicester Road and Gilmorton Road (Figure 19).120 It had two cells, a walled yard, office and a superintendent’s house, and cost £731 including the site, buildings, fittings and professional fees.121 The superintendent’s post was downgraded to inspector in 1922.122 In 1930, Lutterworth became the first county division in England to convert to a motor patrol system.123 The number of police officers was doubled from five to ten in 1992.124 The police station closed in 2013.125

A magistrates’ court was built next to the police station in 1905–6.126 The court room closed in 1998.127

119 Fire Services Act, 1947. 120 Pevsner, 302; NHLE, No. 1228055, Magistrates’ Court, Police Station, Superintendent’s House (accessed 5 Apr. 2020). 121 Leic. Jnl., 30 Jun. 1843. 122 ROLLR, DE 3831/24, p. 59. 123 Rugby Advertiser, 14 Nov. 1930; A. Amos, Lutterworth Police Station: Celebrating 150 Years of Existence, 1843–1993 (Dunton Bassett, 1993), 5–6. 124 Leic. Mercury, 8 Oct. 1992. 125 Ex inf. archivist (2020). 126 Leic. Daily Post, 9 Mar. 1906. 127 G. Smith, Around Lutterworth: a Second Selection (Stroud, 2002), 43.

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Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins

Gas A meeting of inhabitants in 1850 heard from gas engineers from four towns, and the ratepayers present agreed that Lutterworth should be lit by gas.128 The Lutterworth Gas Light and Coke Company was formed that year, and purchased land to the east of the town for a gas works.129 The street lights were lit in 1851.130 The town estate agreed to contribute £20 annually towards the cost, with the balance paid by a rate on the town’s houses.131 The business was incorporated as a limited company in 1907,132 and was never owned by the town. The gas works was enlarged in 1929.133 It was demolished c.1970, following conversion of the supply to natural gas.134

Water The town was solely dependent on c.100 private wells and 15 public pumps in 1896. A meeting of ratepayers was called that year to consider asking the RDC to supply piped water, but concluded that it was ‘too soon to consider the question’.135

The Lutterworth Freehold Land Society Ltd was formed in 1898, with Lord Denbigh as president and Marston Buszard (d. 1921) and Lupton Topham as vice presidents.136 The company acquired powers to lay pipes and supply water, and changed its name to reflect these interests. In 1899, it built a waterworks and water tower on Bitteswell Road, fed by a new well, 40 ft. deep.137 The company sought to sell the waterworks to the parish council in 1910. As the council would have no power to raise a water rate, it resolved to set the matter before the RDC.138 Before anything could be agreed, the waterworks company went into liquidation.139 Negotiations continued, but were delayed by the First World War.140 The purchase was finally made by the RDC in 1920, for £3,400.

As the population grew, the water supply proved insufficient, and George Spencer sunk a new well and pump in 1929, which he donated to the RDC for the use of the town.141 A new water scheme in 1939 diverted water from local springs to underground tanks in Misterton, from where it was pumped to the water tower, and piped from there by gravity feed.142 Following the amalgamation of water companies in the late 1940s and 1950s, Lutterworth’s water was drawn from Stanford reservoir and treatment works.143

128 Leics. Merc., 28 Sept. 1850. 129 Leics. Merc., 28 Sept. 1850, 29 Mar. 1851; Warws. RO, CR 2017/D170, ff. 87–8. 130 Leics. Merc., 29 Mar. 1851. 131 ROLLR, DE 4336/33/1. 132 Rugby Advertiser, 15 Jun. 1907. 133 Rugby Advertiser, 12 July 1929. 134 Coventry Evening Telegraph, 14 Oct. 1970. 135 Rugby Advertiser, 26 Dec. 1896. 136 Leic. Chron. 5 Mar. 1898. 137 Rugby Advertiser, 21 Jan. 1899; Kelly’s Dir. of Leics. and Rutl. (1899), 285; Rugby Advertiser, 1 May 1936. 138 Rugby Advertiser, 5 Feb. 1910. 139 London Gaz., 27 Dec. 1910, 9675. 140 Leic. Daily Post, 17 Oct. 1913; Rugby Advertiser, 16 Oct. 1915; 25 July 1919. 141 Rugby Advertiser, 6 Dec. 1929. 142 Rugby Advertiser, 5 Sept. 1935; Leic. Daily Post, 16 Jun. 1939; W.W. Baum, The Water Supplies of Leicestershire (Leicester, 1949), 101. 143 Lutterworth Rural District Council Handbook, 1971–2.

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Victoria County History: Leicestershire LUTTERWORTH DRAFT TEXT by P.J. Fisher and A. Watkins

Electricity The Leicestershire and Warwickshire Electric Supply Company were authorised to supply electricity to homes and businesses in Lutterworth and surrounding villages in 1926.144 A supply had been laid along the main roads by 1927.145

144 Rugby Advertiser, 5 Feb. 1926; 5 Nov. 1926. 145 Rugby Advertiser, 16 Sept. 1927.

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