COLTON’S CHARITABLE TRUSTS
A Talk to the History Society by Mrs Dorothy Bradbury -- 20th November 2003
Introduction
May I first start my description of Colton’s Charitable Trusts by telling the story of my introduction to their existence.
When I was about eight years old and in Miss Williscroft’s shop waiting to be served, there was an old lady in front of me, a widow whom I knew well. She received a loaf from Miss Williscroft but no money changed hands. I was puzzled! I was on my way to visit my grandmother and on my arrival I told her what I had seen. She explained to me about the ‘widow’s loaves being provided from an old charity bequest’.
That was the beginning of a journey of acquiring knowledge of Colton’s Charities.
I have been fortunate in that my father was keenly interested in the history of and service to Colton. He served as a member of two Trusts during his lifetime and in fact it so happens that my husband, David, has served the very same Trusts too. He is also a member of another Trust where Colton has only one representative.
Firstly, I must explain that there are two types of Trust, Parochial and Ecclesiastical and it about these that you will hear. I will talk in chronological order of the charities being set up.
1) Parochial
a)
i) Thomas Russell 1589
ii) Thomas Taylor 1676
iii) Thomas Butler 1680
iv) John Webb 1727
v) Colton Lands Trust 1792
vi) Colwich Parish Charities
b) Modern:
i) Colton Village Hall
ii) Old People’s Welfare Committee
2) Ecclesiastical
i) Mrs Mary Taylor 1755
ii) Parish Clerk’s Charity Ancient
iii) Colton United Schools 1862
iv) Henry Walter Holland 1877
v) Elizabeth Harland 1884
Parish Clerk’s Charity (Ecclesiastical)
This was set up hundreds of years ago and may have been connected with the chapel which stood in what is now Bellamour Lodge. The fields to the south-west of the lodge are known as Chapel Yard and Chapel Yard Meadow. It was certainly set up in medieval times as some of the land, formerly owned by the charity (5½ acres in all) was in strip and dole formation. There were five pieces of land, two small meadows and three strips. Two were at Hamley, one at Stockwell Heath and a portion of what is now Keith Williscroft’s garden and the Village Hall Field. All of these were sold in about 1965. The Clerk’s House and garden are still owned by the Charity. The use of the land and latterly its rental (£17 in 1960) was the Clerk’s income. The Clerk undertook many duties at the church, as well as attending all services. There were three per day on Sunday when my grandfather was clerk between 1931 and 1944. The position of clerk ceased during the 1960’s and the income from the house rental is now used to maintain it and any surplus can be used for church funds.
Thomas Russell (Parochial)
Thomas Russell was a draper in the City of London and by his will dated 7th July 1589 he left 52 shillings yearly for ever to buy 12 penny worth of bread each Sunday for the poor of Colton. (Also Blithfield and Barton under Needwood and he founded a school there in 1593 – know today as the Thomas Russell Primary School). This rent charge was on his land at Marsh Barn Farm in the parish of Hermitage (now Armitage). The rent charge, together with four others, is now redeemed. The owners of the land paid twelve times the annual charge and this money is invested yielding something in the region of £12 per annum. May I add that the accounts have been forwarded to the Church Commissioners, so everything is all ‘above board’. This income can be used to help where necessary at the discretion of the Trustees.
Thomas Taylor (Parochial)
Thomas Taylor a Yeoman of Colton left, by his will proven 16th June 1676, 52 shillings yearly for ever to buy 12 penny worth of bread each Sunday for the poor of Colton. This rent charge, now redeemed, was on his land known as Tinkers Close (at the North end of the High Street). Owners of the Tinkers Fields during the late 18th, 19th and early 20th century included John Pegg, his nephew Edward Smith and his grandson Reverend Dr Thomas Bonney.
Thomas Butler (Parochial)
Thomas Butler of Colton, a blacksmith, left, by his will dated 30th June 1680 and signed with his mark, 54shillings yearly for ever to buy cloth or other conveniences for the poor at the discretion of the Priest and the Overseers. The rent charge was on his land called Crabtree Flat. This rent charge is now redeemed. In the early 20th century it was paid by Lord Bagot and in the late 19th century the money bought two coats for old men and four dresses for old women.
John Webb (Parochial)
John Webb of Wiggington (near Tamworth) left by his will dated 26th January 1727 and proved on 25th May 1729 20shillings to be given to the poor every St Thomas’s Day for ever, charged upon his house and croft known as the Three Wheels and the small croft adjoining in the occupation of Anne Hayward, widow.
This property became by 1801 school property (more about this later) and in 1884 was leased for 99 years to the Elizabeth Harland Almshouse Charity (School & Almshouse solved this in 1965). However, a small croft still exists to the south of the Clerk’s House garden and the gardens of School House and Cottage. The rent charge is now redeemed.
Mrs Mary Taylor (Ecclesiastical)
Mrs Mary Taylor was actually a spinster but it was commonplace to call such ladies Mrs. She was the daughter of John Taylor, Rector of Colton from 1693 to 1701, sister of John Taylor who was Rector from 1708 to 1738 and aunt of John Taylor the Rector from 1738 to 1767. She would have known of her nephew’s imprisonment in 1751/1752 for preaching the Jacobite Cause.
Mrs Mary Taylor left, by will dated 2nd April 1755, £25 to purchase or secure land and of the profits £1 to be paid yearly to the one or several who attended both morning and evening worship on Good Friday. The Trustees in 1765 purchased an annuity to be paid out of the rents of Vinson’s Hollowdale and Close which land had been bought by Mary’s father from John Vinson in 1697. The Free School established in 1764 received £2 per year from the rental of this land too.
Vinsons Hollowdale is now part of the Glebe Land. The Good Friday dole was last paid out in the 1930’s, when my grandfather, W E Cooper, was a recipient.
The field lies near to where the brook flows under the B 5013 and in 1697 it abutted Glebe Land; land owned by Thomas Butler, Charles Wild and Thomas Whitgreave and occupied by Simon Pedley. The rent charge is now redeemed.
Colton Parish Lands Trust (Parochial)
This was formed in 1792 by private act of Parliament The Hon. Dame Mary Blount (pronounced Blunt) widow being the Lady of the Manor, she and other landowners joined together to be the first trustees and bring the enclosures into being.
There were 19 trustees, The Right Honourable Lord Bagot, Honourable Dame Mary Blount, the Rector John Landor, Sir William Wolseley Baronet, Thomas Anson Esq. (family not yet ennobled), John Sparrow Esq. of Bishton Hall (Sneyd family had gone), John Biddulph Esq. (a family connection by marriage to the Wolseley's), Thomas Webb, William Spencer, Walter Landor Doctor of Physic, John Pegg, Thomas Jeffrey Averne, Rebecca Emery, John Burt (Colton House), Thomas Henry Francis Whitgreave (Boughey and Lount owner), George Hayward, John Clarke, Samuel Wright and Susannah Lyon.
There had previously been encroachments: five cottages at Bank Top, three at Stockwell Heath and six others elsewhere and these were vested in the Lady of the Manor. Any other properties would be owned by the Charity. There was provision for road repairing or making of new roads, planting trees and hedges and creating ditches and fences. Two marl holes were to remain to dress the fields.
Richard Hill of Stallington and Robert Harvey of Dunstall were made Commissioners. The wastes were at Hamley and Stockwell Heath and commonfields were the Eye Meadow and Sleetings. Eye in Old English means meadow by water i.e. the river Trent. Sleetings is from the Danish and means Long Flat Meadow. The Marsh and the Longley were retained by the Trust. The commonfields were enclosed and moved into private farm ownership. The sale of land provided funds to fence and hedge fields and to build six Parish Almshouses, know as ‘The Barracks’ at Stockwell Heath and demolished in the 1960’s.
The land was to be rented out and the profits used for the relief of the poor. The act stated the regulations for appointing Trustees and the words of the oath to be taken by new Trustees are still used today. The great-grandparents of two current Colton residents -- Peter Jones and Norman Baker, last occupied one property at Stockwell Heath, opposite Bleak Cottage. In Hollow Lane there were originally six cottages along the lane up to the marl-hole. Now there are two. The marl-hole and a small piece of land (now the driveway and lawn to the cottages) in Hollow Lane have been sold and also two allotment gardens in High Street within the last fifty five years.
At least two pieces have been ‘lost’, one at Bellamour (Town) End and the open piece opposite Bank Top Cottage in Hollow Lane . The ‘road’ to Colton Hall entered the field almost opposite the drive of Bank Top Cottage before it made its way southwards down the Martlin and into Sheep Close Lane to New Barn.
Today the Trustees make donations each year to individuals and organisations but their first charge is to keep their property and land in good order. They have created three areas of woodland on land uneconomic for renting out. Trustees are not able to benefit in any way from the charity.
Colton United Schools Charity (Ecclesiastical)
This was created in 1862 with the building of the present school on land given by T. B. Horsfall esq., M.P. for Liverpool. Prior to this boys and girls were educated separately.
The Free School for boys was founded and endowed in 1764 from subscriptions and levies. The sum of £350 purchased the school, which was adjacent to the War Memorial, three acres of land in Colton and nineteen acres at Marchington. The rents from these together with £2 from the Mrs Mary Taylor Charity, formed the salary of the master. In 1821 John Spencer gave £484-8-7d. The interest on this and the interest on £80 raised from the sale of timber enhanced the masters salary. Records show that in 1851 the master taught forty boys and was paid £50 per annum.
The Free School for girls was endowed in 1801 by Thomas Webb. His properties were the Three Wheels or Bell Inn (where Oldham Cottages now stand), three adjoining cottages and Webb’s Cottages in the High Street and a field lying behind. (Peter and Ruth Jones and Frank and Olive Ballard’s homes now stand on the site). All of these Thomas Webb properties have now been sold. In 1851 the mistress received £18 per year to teach the girls to read, knit and sew.
Only the Marchington land is still owned by the Charity bringing worthy income for the school together with interest arising from the proceeds of properties and land sold and investments. All church appointed School Governors are trustees.
Henry Walter Holland (Ecclesiastical)
Henry Walter Holland left, by will proved 6th November 1877, £30 to the Rector and Churchwardens to purchase land to be rented out and provide, after expenses have been paid, cash to be given to the six eldest widows each St Thomas Day.
The land purchased was a piece of garden ground at Bank Top (between Mr Hardcastle’s property and the Slang of Colton Parish Lands Trust known as Bank Top Croft). During the period in which he lived at Bellamour James Oldham-Oldham owned this ground.
This grant was last paid out in the 1960’s; the land is still owned by the charity. Two people who do not use it have paid its rental for the last twenty years. The rent is paid into the account held by the five redeemed small charities.
Elizabeth Harland Almshouse Charity (Ecclesiastical)
In 1883 Ellen Oldham of Bellamour Lodge died and her sister, Elizabeth Harland, leased the property known as the Three Wheels or Bell Inn for ninety nine years from the Colton United Schools Charity. She demolished the Inn and built the present Oldhams Cottages.
The cottages were in effect eight flats for the elderly of the parish ‘for the people of Colton in the evening of their life’. They were modernised in 1959/1960 and during 2003 they have been completely modernised and refurbished to create four cottages. It is expected that the new occupiers will move in within the coming ten days.
In about 1965 the property and its garden and grounds were formally separated from the School Charity and is now totally owned by the Almshouse Charity.
Colwich Parochial Charities (Parochial)
In 1889 a scheme was drawn up to regularise the Parochial Charities. There were nineteen charities bound into one scheme having ten trustees to administer it and provide from the interest and endowments monetary gifts for the elderly.
Why Colwich Charities? Since ancient times there has been parts of Colwich within Colton Parish. It is assumed that this predates Parish boundaries. The Episcopal Manor of Haywood was a Manor of the Bishops prior to the dissolution of the Monasteries. The Ansons bought Shugborough in 1624 and the 1st Earl of Lichfield was created in 1831. The people who had ‘emigrated’ from the Episcopal Manor of Haywood and moved to Colton retained their allegiance to Haywood and, subsequently, Colwich.
There are ninety acres of Colton so designated. A small area beside Boughey Hall, the area from Williscroft Place to the Greyhound Cottage (originally the Post Office), Colton Cottage in the High Street and the field behind it and the whole property of the Dun Cow, including its fields are amongst these. There are also two fields on the western side of Sherra Cop, four fields scattered about the Newlands and two fields well beyond Long Metts Lane (Old English for Long Enclosure) at the eastern extreme of the parish and further fields to the north of Boughey Hall and Bellamour Lodge.
The oldest charity is that of Thomas Crompton of Moreton who in 1659 bequeathed land, 12½ acres in all, at Ravenhill to provide funds for the poor. This is where Raven Hill Primary School, Rugeley, and the housing estate are now situated. Thomas married Jocose Boughie on 11th January 1624 and their grand daughter’s husband, Gabriel Wood, also bequeathed £50 for land in 1706. David Bradbury represents Colton together with members from Colwich, Great Haywood, Stowe and Fradswell.
Modern Charities
Colton Village Hall has acquired charity status whereas its ‘predecessor’, the old Reading Room, could not because in its endowment the Horsfall family had included the words ‘a club for working men’ and the Charities Commission took the view that it was or could be a Working Men’s Club!
Colton Old Peoples Welfare Committee received charity status soon after its formation in the late 1960’s
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