Meetings of the Council have to be held somewhere, preferably in a ‘public’ place. The first meeting was held in “the schoolroom”. This would have been in the place now known as “The School House” in School Lane next to the current school building. The school was built in 1893 and the teaching was done in the room at the front of the building. It is interesting to note that exactly 100 years after the first meeting that a celebration Chairman’s Evening was held in the main classroom of the current schoolroom. This marked the beginning of a year of celebration activities.
As opposed to the light and airy classroom of 1996 we should remember that the schoolroom was likely to have been painted in dark colours and lit by a few smoky oil lamps. It is unlikely that heating would have been generous and it should be easy to imagine what a meeting in the midst of winter would have been like. Men in suits and top coats around what heat there was discussing matters in the poor light.
Originally the Council paid the sum of 10/- for the use of the room for the whole of 1895. The school managers requested two guineas (£2/2/0) per annum in February 1896 but this was refused and it was not until 1899 that another entry indicates that any money was passed over and that was again only 10/-
Nothing further is noted until April 1915 when the sum of 7/- was paid for the hire.
The number of meetings per annum have been:
Year Meetings Notes
1895 7 1,2
1896 6 3
1897 3
1898 5
1899 6
1900 10 4
1901 11 5,6,7
1902 3
1903 7
1904 4
1905 5
1906 4
1907/8 5 each
1909 - 11 4 each
1912 6
1913 4
1914 6
1915 5
1916 3
1917/18 2 each
1919/20 3 each
1921 2
1922 4 9
1923 3
1924/5 4 each
1926 4
1927 3
1928 - 32 4 each
1933/4 5
1935 2 No annual meeting was recorded
1936 5
1937 4
1938/9 5 each
1940 - 44 4 each
1945 - 47 3 each
1948 5 Included first in village hall
1949 7
1950 5
1951 - 52 7 each
1953 6
1954/5 4 each
1956 7
1957 - 64 5 each
1965 6
1967 8
1968 7
1969 6
1970 7
1971 6
1972 - 74 7 each
1975 10
1976 8
1977 3 To 31st March
Notes
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- It was voted 5:2 to hold the meetings “in camera”
- It was voted to hold the meetings “in public”
- It was voted that reports of the meetings be published in the local newspaper
- It was voted again to hold the meetings “in camera”
- One meeting was held solely to write a letter of condolence to HM Edward VII upon the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
- It was decided to hold meetings quarterly on 1st Monday in July, September, December and March. The resolve did not last long.
- Two meetings were held on a Saturday: the 10th August and 2nd November.
- The minutes of the meeting held on 23rd August 1902 state “Minutes of a meeting of the Parish Council holding office temporarily held in the schoolroom on Saturday 23rd August 1902 at 7.30pm by powers given under s47 sub-section 5 of the Local Government Act 1894. Present J Feasey (clerk) Councillors J Petts and J Slayter”. It is not known why a meeting had not been held for seven months or why 5 councillors had resigned as, from the minutes, no apparent problems had arisen. None of the councillors who had resigned, Messrs Collett, Coleman, Line, Watts or West were sitting on the next meeting of the Council held on 26th September 1902.
- On 13th March the Council met but the minutes record that there was no business to conduct.
During the Second World War meetings continued to be held at regular intervals but little business other than the setting of the precept and payment of the electricity standing charge, clerks wages and audit stamp seemed to take place. Also the number of councillors at meetings were often as few as three and the attendance of others irregular.
On 27th April 1948 the first meeting of the Council in 53 years was held away from the school when meetings moved to the newly opened village hall.
The number of members on the Parish Council was increased to seven as from May 1955.