LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Local government is something which has evolved over the centuries to try to solve new problems as they arose.

Authority for local affairs rested with the vestry meeting of clergymen for many centuries. There were three main officials; the (petty) constable, the surveyor of highways and the overseer of the poor. Above them were the High Constables(two for the Nantwich Hundred), appointed annually by the Court Baron or the Court Leet. And four Petty Constables for the town.

The duties of the Constables were numerous but chiefly concerned with matters of law and order, viz affrays, felonies, grievous bodily harm, night walkers, day sleepers, people in bawdy houses; appointment of night watches and day wards. They could commit wrongdoers to the stocks. They also observed common law: keeping the peace, forming a posse. proposals for an act of parliament, armed risings, breaking the law relating to inns, travellers, vagrants, beggars and adulterers. Other matters included weights and measures, Sunday observance, bear baitings. poaching, illegal fishing,
stretching cloth when being measured, swearing,....

The duties of the Surveyor of Highways included: obtaining money for repairs to roads from the general rates; to deal with people who did not do their share of work on the highways; to remove, or fill in, anything that would shelter a robber for 200 feet on either side of a highway. They had the power to direct the owners of horses and vehicles to work on a road. Householders were required to work for eight hours a day from the 18th to the 23rd of June each year. Persons with land alongside a highway were responsible for fences and the scouring of ditches.

The Overseer of the Poor could levy a rate to provide money for his work. He could put the poor and their children to work He could help those people who were unable to help themselves, that is, the sick, lame, frail. But persons who refused to do as ordered could be sent to the House of Correction (forerunner of the workhouse).

Apart from these three officials there was also a number of other officers. These were a Birlieman, an under officer (foreman) who sought to see that orders were carried out; could enforce measures to reduce risks and inconveniences to property and inhabitants, and reduce friction between neighbours.

There was the Fire looker whose duty was to see that wood was not stored near buildings and the Market inspector; the Inspector of Leather and others. If the posts of Leave-lookers and Kennel-lookers had disappeared, there were still matters that needed supervision; none more so than drainage, sanitation, water supplies and purity. These matters did not receive attention until the great cholera epidemic came in 1849.

So in 1850 the Local Board of Health was set up (see the Cholera page) and water supplies, drainage and sewage disposal were installed. In 1863 a Highways Board was set up. Then in 1872 the Nantwich Rural District Council was created under the 1850 Public Health Act. It covered 75 places, i.e. the old `hundred`.

It was 1888 before County Councils were set up. A.N.Hornby was elected a county councillor in the first County Council election in 1889. Soon afterwards in 1894 Nantwich Urban District Council was formed. This gave the town powers to run most of its local services. By that time Nantwich had a population of 7,412. The town was divided into three wards from which a council of twelve members was elected.

The NUDC Act of 1903 dealt mainly with the running of a gasworks

While independence and local pride are admirable, there are limits and obstacles to how much a small town can do for its citizens from the money raised through the rates. This and other problems of local government had been recognised for years by Parliament.

During the War of 1939-45 plans were already being considered for reconstruction. It was agreed that a larger unit of population was necessary to provide the basic local services and then go on to add the `luxuries`. After much planning and very many amendments, the Local Government Act of 1972 came into force. The result for Nantwich was that it found itself coupled to Crewe in a new Crewe and Nantwich District of c.90,000 population.

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