Catalogue description RECORDS OF PARISH COUNCILS AND PARISH MEETINGS

This record is held by Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies

Details of CP
Reference: CP
Title: RECORDS OF PARISH COUNCILS AND PARISH MEETINGS
Description:

The following numbers are not allocated in the catalogue: CP 23-26; 28, 46, 49, 58, 59, 62, 69, 71, 77, 79, 82, 84, 87, 92, 96, 100, 101, 104, 110, 112, 113

 

In the lists of records, where no statement or indication to the contrary is made, the physical format of the records is a volume.

 

PARISH COUNCIL/MEETING - POST 1894

 

1. Minute Books

 

2. Declarations of Acceptance of Office

 

3. Receipt and Payment Accounts

 

4. Annual Financial Statements

 

5. Financial - Various [including Bank Pass Books, Treasurer's Bonds, Precept Books, Loan Accounts, Allotment Receipt and Payment Accounts, Allotment Rent Books, Bills and Vouchers]

 

6. Correspondence

 

7. Miscellaneous

 

7A. Title Deeds

 

CIVIL PARISH RECORDS - PRE 1894

 

8. VESTRY, CHURCHWARDENS

 

CONSTABLE

 

9. Accounts

 

10. Miscellaneous

 

OVERSEERS OF THE POOR

 

11. Rates

 

12. Accounts

 

13. Settlement

 

14. Apprenticeship

 

15. Bastardy

 

16. Settlement - Miscellaneous

 

17. Militia

 

18. Miscellaneous

 

19. Post 1834 Records: Overseers; Boards of Guardians; Poor Law Commissioners; Valuation Lists; Special Expenses Rates (post-1872). [This class comprises records arising from functions exercised as a result of post-1834 legislation and does not include series such as rate books existing before that date.]

 

SURVEYORS OF THE HIGHWAYS

 

20. Rates

 

21. Accounts

 

22. Miscellaneous

 

23. LIGHTING and WATCHING INSPECTORS

 

24. SPECIAL COMMITTEES

 

25. CHARITIES

 

STATUTORY DEPOSITS

 

26. Inclosure

 

27. Tithe

 

28. Public Utility Schemes

 

29. MISCELLANEOUS

 

1. Albury

 

2. Aldbury

 

3. Aldenham

 

4. Great Amwell

 

5. Little Amwell

 

6. Anstey

 

7. Ardeley

 

8. Ashwell

 

9. Aspenden

 

10. Aston

 

11. Ayot St. Lawrence

 

12. Ayot St. Peter

 

13. Barkway

 

14. Barley

 

15. Bayford

 

16. Bengeo

 

17. Benington

 

18. Little Berkhampstead

 

19. Bovingdon

 

20. Bramfield

 

21. Braughing

 

22. Brickendon Liberty

 

23. Buckland

 

24. Buntingford

 

25. Bygrave

 

26. Caldecote and Newnham

 

27. Chipperfield

 

28. Clothall

 

29. Codicote

 

30. Colney Heath

 

31. Cottered

 

32. Datchworth

 

33. Eastwick and Gilston

 

34. Elstree

 

35. Essendon

 

36. Flamstead

 

37. Flaunden

 

38. Great Gaddesden

 

39. Little Gaddesden

 

40. Graveley

 

41. Little Hadham

 

42. Much Hadham

 

43. Harpenden Rural

 

44. Hatfield

 

45. Hertingfordbury

 

46. Hexton

 

47. High Wych

 

48. Hinxworth

 

49. Holwell

 

50. Hormead

 

51. Hunsdon

 

52. Ickleford

 

53. Kelshall

 

54. Kimpton

 

55. Knebworth

 

56. Abbots Langley

 

57. Kings Langley

 

58. Langley

 

59. Lilley

 

60. London Colney

 

61. Markyate

 

62. Meesden

 

63. Great Munden

 

64. Little Munden

 

65. North Mymms

 

66. Nettleden and Potten End

 

67. Northaw

 

68. Northchurch

 

69. Nuthampstead

 

70. Offley

 

71. Brent Pelham

 

72. Furneux Pelham

 

73. Stocking Pelham

 

74. Pirton

 

75. Preston

 

76. Puttenham

 

77. Radwell

 

78. Redbourn

 

79. Reed

 

80. Ridge

 

81. Rushden

 

82. Sacombe

 

83. St. Ippollitts

 

84. St. Michaels Rural

 

85. St. Stephens

 

86. Sandon

 

87. Sandridge Rural

 

88. Sarratt

 

89. Shenley

 

90. Standon

 

91. Stanstead Abbotts

 

92. Stanstead St. Margaret

 

93. Stapleford

 

94. Tewin

 

95. Therfield

 

96. Thorley

 

97. Thundridge

 

98. Tring Rural

 

99. Kings Walden

 

100. St. Pauls Walden

 

101. Walkern

 

102. Wallington

 

103. Ware Rural

 

104. Watford Rural

 

105. Watton-at-Stone

 

106. Welwyn

 

107. Westmill

 

108. Weston

 

109. Wheathampstead

 

110. Widford

 

111. Wigginton

 

112. Wyddial

 

113. Wymondley

 

114. Totteridge

 

115. Arkley

 

116. Broxbourne

 

117 Wormley

 

118 Hoddesdon Rural

 

119 Berkhamsted St. Peter

 

120 Shephall

 

121 Sawbridgeworth

 

122 Royston.

 

123 Berkhamsted Rural

 

124 Rickmansworth Rural.

Date: 1704-1995
Arrangement:

The types of record created by parish councils and meetings or received by them as documents to be placed with the public books and writings of the parish are relatively limited. A scheme of classification for records received from them has been devised which will allow the inclusion of pre-1894 civil parish records with reasonable ease and simplicity. Post 1894 records have been allocated class reference numbers replacing the purely ecclesiastical classes of records to be found in PARISH RECORDS and then for pre-1894 records the same classification scheme as is used in PARISH RECORDS has been adopted. Where possible or necessary, cross reference to the appropriate group of parish records received from ecclesiastical custody has been made. Each unit (i.e. the records of each civil parish) has been given a CP reference followed by a number, the numeration being serially linked to the alphabetical list of civil parishes in existence in 1963.

Related material:

St Peter Rural see CP 30 and CP60

Held by: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Hertfordshire County Council

Physical description: 410 series
Access conditions:

Under the Local Government Act, 1933, section 283, the public has right of access to certain classes of parish council records and these rights are in no way affected by the deposit of the records in the County Record Office. Records to which the public does not have statutory right of access are not open to public inspection until the records in question are more than 30 years old, unless the enquirer presents written authority from the Parish Council allowing access.

Immediate source of acquisition:

c.1933

 

CP2/11/29-32 and 19/8-13 deposited by Dacorum District Council with the records of Berkhamsted RDC

 

CP98/19/1 and 20/1

 

CP66/19/1 & CP66/11/1

 

CP68/11/1,2 & 19/1-3.

Administrative / biographical background:

Parish councils and parish meetings were established under the terms of the Local Government Act, 1894 (56 and 57. Vict., c.73), whereby the new authorities took over the various civil duties and powers formerly exercised, by virtue of numerous statutes dating from Tudor times, by the ecclesiastical parish and its elected officers. By the time of the wide reform of local government made by the Acts of 1888 and 1894, the old machinery was no longer satisfactory or adequate and the new elective parish councils were instituted to exercise the functions of the civil parish.

 

By section 1 of the Local Government Act, 1894 (56 and 57 Vict., c.73), each rural parish was to have a parish meeting and a parish council was to be established for every rural parish with a population of over three hundred, subject to the power of a county council to make an order establishing a parish council in a parish with a smaller population, if the parish so desired it. The first elections of parish councillors usually took place at a parish meeting called for the purpose. Where an active parish council exists, parish meetings tend to become inactive and in other parishes, there are frequently difficulties in mustering a quorum. The provisions of the 1894 Act were re-enacted with modifications by the Local Government Act, 1933, and have been further modified by subsequent legislation. An account and commentary on the 1894 Act by Macmorren and Dill and a detailed statement on the current law, Parish Administration (with supplement) by C. Arnold Baker, are available in the Record Office Library for background.

 

By the Vestries Act, 1818 (58 Geo. III, c.69, 5.6), vestry minutes, rates and assessments, accounts and vouchers of the Churchwardens, Overseers of the Poor and Surveyors of the Highways and other parish officers, together with all certificates, orders of Courts and Justices of the Peace and other parish books, writings, documents and public papers of every parish were to in such a place and manner and by such person as the inhabitants of the parish assembled in vestry should direct. The registers of baptisms, marriages and burials were unaffected by this Act. By section 17 (8) of the Local Government Act, 1894, it was enacted that the custody of parish registers and of all other books and documents containing entries wholly or partly relating to the affairs of the Church or to ecclesiastical charities, except documents directed by law to be kept with the public books, writings and papers of the parish, should remain unaffected by the Act. All other public books, writings and papers of the parish were to remain in their existing custody or in such custody as the parish council should direct. The ecclesiastical and civil authorities in the parish were to have access to the records in each others' custody and disputes as to custody were to be determined by the County Council. By section 17 (9), every County Council was empowered to enquire into the manner of keeping of records in the custody of parish councils or parish meetings with a view to their proper preservation and might make such orders, to be complied with by parish councils or parish meetings, as they thought necessary for such preservation. By section 17 (7), documents required by statute or standing orders of Parliament to be deposited with the parish clerk of a rural parish were to be deposited, after the election of a parish council, with the clerk, or chairman, if there was no clerk, of the parish council (the two principal provisions being 7 Wm. IV, c.83 and 8 and 9 Vict., c.20 [Railway Clauses Act, 1845], ss. 8 and 9).

 

By s.281 of the Local Government Act, 1933 (23 and 24 Geo. V, c.51), the provisions of s.17 of the Local Government Act, 1894, were re-enacted. By s.282, parish councils must provide proper 'repositories' for their records or may request rural district councils to do so, with which request the rural district council must comply. By this section, the rural district council must, in the case of parish meetings and with their consent, provide proper 'repositories'. Parish registers and other records under ecclesiastical control are, by s.281 of the Local Government Act, to remain in the custody of the incumbent and Parochial Church Council, to whose custody they had been confided by the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure, 1921, s.4, although this is subject to such arrangements as the Bishop of the diocese may make under the terms of the Parochial Registers and Records Measure, 1929. The provisions of s.6 of the Vestries Act, 1818, were repealed by the Local Government Act, 1933, s.307, sch.11.

 

This legislation has tended to create something of a dichotomy in the custody of parish records, which can give rise to anomalies and confusion. In general, however, the practical effect has been, in Hertfordshire as elsewhere, for pre-1894 records relating to civil matters to remain in the custody of the incumbent and Parochial Church Council. Where such records have been deposited in the County Record Office in its capacity as Diocesan Record Office by ecclesiastical authorities, they will be found listed and classified under PARISH RECORDS (D/P) in the general classification scheme. However, in some cases pre-1894 civil records have come into the custody of parish councils and have been deposited by them. In these cases, the records are classified and listed in this class of CIVIL PARISH RECORDS (CP).

 

By the provisions of sect. 2 (1) of the 7th Schedule to the Rating and Valuation Act, 1925 (15 and 16 Geo. V, c.90) all valuation lists, rate books and other books of account or documents relating to the making, levying or collection of rates which, on the appointed day, were in the custody of the vestry clerk, overseers of a parish or any rating authority, whose powers and duties were transferred to the new rating authorities under the Act, were to be under the control of the rating authority in whose area the parish lay, subject to the right of overseers or other parochial officer to the custody of them for completion and audit, and were to be deposited in such custody as the rating authority might direct. By sect. 2 (2) of the same Schedule, all books and documents which, on the appointed day, were in the custody of a vestry clerk or overseers, if they contained entries wholly or partly relating to the affairs of the church or to ecclesiastical charities and were not books or documents directed by law to be kept with the public books or writings of the parish, were to be deposited in such custody as the parochial church council might direct (subject to the provisions of sect. 2 (1) above in respect of the documents therein specified) and all public books, writings and papers of the parish (including all documents directed by law to be kept with such books) in the custody of a vestry clerk or overseers were also to be deposited in such custody as a parish council, in the case of a rural council, might direct, or as the parish meeting, if there should be no parish council, might direct or as the rating authority, in the case of other parishes, might direct.

 

By the Local Government (Record) Act, 1962, civil parish authorities were not given any specific powers and duties as they already had adequate powers under previous legislation. Moreover, the Minister in his explanatory memorandum No. 44/62 dealing with this Act recommended parish councils which had not already deposited their records in county record offices to do so. This recommendation was made the occasion for the first general survey of the records of parish councils by the County Council under section 281 (4) of the Local Government Act, 1933, and it was as a result of this survey that the bulk of the records listed here were received.

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