Charles Cole

Charles Cole was appointed as Rector in 1717 by the Hackett Trustees. As a young Rector he was a very energetic character taking an interest in the agricultural well being of his community.

The farming community in Great Crawley became very concerned about the amount of common pasture available to them and in 1739 Charles Cole invited a large part of the parishioners to a meeting at the Rectory to discuss the problem. Prior Court orders at the Exeter Manor allocating rights to grazing were being ignored and in 1742 a report from a professional surveyor Charles Pilsworth said

“In the Common Fields of North Crawley there was no stint of common for horses, cows or sheep, but the common is in “Gross Sans Nombre” and always has been for time out of mind. And there is a great deal of Inclosed Pasture Ground in the said Parish which has no relation to the Common Field Lands, and the occupiers of the said Inclosed Pasture Ground make it there practice to rent any small quantity of Common Field Land in right of which as soon as the Harvest is Ended in the Common Fields they turn all their stock of cattle out of the said Inclosed Pasture into the Common Fields and keep them there as long as the said fields are good in favour of their said Pasture and thereby Ruin and Starve the cattle of the occupiers of the common land”

It was unfortunate that he did not have private income and therefore could not maintain the Rectory at Broadmead with it’s 18 rooms and outhouses on his meagre income.

The death of Charles Cole in 1771  was announced in The Northampton Mercury and  he left a Will .

William Lowndes had purchased the Old Rectory with The Grange Estate in 1723 and  so on the death of Charles Coles he was entitled to appoint the Rector and his grandson Thomas Lowndes was appointed which quickly lead to The Enclosure of the Common Fields by an act of parliament in 1772 and an award of lands in 1773. At that time it was stated that many village troubles had been caused by the grazing problems.