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| This tale is the first concerning the Church Green at Eastcourt. Now regarded as the "heart" of the village, it has not always been so and has had an interesting history which in 1913 finally culminated with the creation of the railed green we see today. |
| Our tale concerns the doings of the churchwardens in the year 1779 - for it must be remembered that until the creation of parish councils in 1894, these gentlemen (always men in those days) had many secular as well as ecclesiastical responsibilities. The focus of the story is the cottage opposite the church gate now known as Steele's Cottage. It, and the one adjoining, were built in about 1720 by Stephen Dore and purchased from his estate by the Earl of Ailesbury in about 1770. To their east lies the Church Green which was then a cattle pasture rented from the churchwardens by the resident curate, Henry Jenner. Unlike the other houses along the Church Way (now Eastcourt), these two cottages possess small gardens to the east which were fenced to prevent the cattle on the green from putting their heads into the downstairs windows. |
| William Gale moved into the cottage in 1777, taking over from John Payne who had had trouble paying the 50 shillings annual rent. In February 1779 William decided to replace the hedge bordering the Church Green and erected "a neat fleaking hedge piled and nailed". The problem was that he erected it 18" beyond the cottage's boundary and the churchwardens - John Clarke of Westcourt and Robert Pearce - immediately spotted the trespass upon the Church Green. |
| The churchwardens quickly summonsed a Vestry and pronounced that Gale had until the following morning to either pay the customary 1 shilling a year for access to the Green or the hedge would be physically removed. [It should be noted that until about 1855 access to the Church Green (including what is now the road) was restricted to the tenant - usually the incumbent or the Nutleys; the church wardens - as custodians; the vicar - by special dispensation of the Vestry in 1636; any individual who was willing to pay 1 shilling a year. The villagers only had a right of passage across the Green in order to reach the church to attend divine service.] |
| Gale's reaction was to petition the Earl's land agent and ask him to intervene which he immediately did by writing to Mr Jenner and requesting him to ask Mr Clarke to hold back until he had arrived to discuss the matter. However Mr Clarke would have none of it and arrived next morning at 9 o'clock with one of his labourers and by 9:30 the hedge was flattened. Had he stopped there the matter would have been over but apparently Clarke was incensed and ordered the labourer to cut down a newly planted tree and lop boughs off another. The problem was that these were within the garden of the cottage and so Gale again petitioned the land agent, this time asking him to prosecute the church warden and his labourer, Thomas Hilliard, for the damage they had done to his lordship's property. |
| Meanwhile Clarke decided that as the labourer had performed a duty at the request of the Vestry, his expenses should be met by the ratepayers of the parish and apparently submitted an expense claim. |
| As the matter had now become more serious, the land agent brought it to the attention of the earl who was well aware of his ancestor's legal tussle with the churchwardens over this land some 100 years prior and so personally intervened. He first wrote to Mr Jenner and forbade him to make any further payments of rent for the land - presumably he wished to sequestrate the monies until he had been fully recompensed for the damage to his property. This would put Mr Jenner in a difficult position as he was the earl's private chaplain but would also wish to keep good relations with his churchwardens. The earl then wrote to the ratepayers of the parish (most of whom were his tenants) and pointed out that as the statutory notice had not been given, the Vestry had not been legally convened and so the churchwardens had no right to cut down the hedge therefore no money was to be paid by the ratepayers to Mr Clarke to cover the cost of his labourer. |
| As with so much of Burbage's history, the final outcome is undocumented but you can be sure that the Earl received full compensation and that no expenses were paid to Mr Clarke but the next episode will show that the churchwardens had more in store for the earl's tenants at Eastcourt. |
| As Clarke was often re-elected church warden over the coming years it would seem that he continued to have support among the parishioners, possibly because he was the only independent landowner resident in the parish. However I suppose Ailesbury had the last laugh as he acquired Clarke's lands upon his death in about 1821. |
©Colin Younger 2007