Catalogue description RECORDS OF PARISH COUNCILS AND PARISH MEETINGS
This record is held by Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
Reference: | CP |
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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: |
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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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