Wheatenhurst or Whitminster: Local government

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Wheatenhurst had its own view of frankpledge by 1479, (fn. 1) and apparently by 1424. (fn. 2) The tenants of the manor nevertheless owed a common fine to the sheriff at Whitstone hundred court, (fn. 3) an obligation challenged but upheld in the 17th century. (fn. 4) No record of the court leet is known to survive, and none of a court baron except for two copies of court roll of William Bayly's manor, of 1644 and 1649. (fn. 5) Bayly's successor, John Eckly, was said to hold the court leet c. 1710. (fn. 6)

The inhabitants built a church house c. 1510 which was still in use in 1591, (fn. 7) but no later reference to it has been found. A list of parish officers from 1694 shows that each of the larger houses in turn was responsible for filling the offices. The surveyors of highways, whose accounts for 1728-68 survive, received their own rate. Accounts of the overseers of the poor, from 1735, include payments of doctors' bills and for clothing for the poor. (fn. 8) Expenditure on the poor was low, and rose from £91 in 1776 only to £109 in 1803. (fn. 9) In the next ten years the number of people regularly relieved and the annual expenditure doubled, (fn. 10) but even so the poor rates were low (fn. 11) and in the late twenties and early thirties expenditure was again below £200 a year. (fn. 12) The parish became part of the Wheatenhurst Union in 1835, (fn. 13) and in 1935 was transferred with the rest of the Wheatenhurst Rural District to Gloucester Rural District. (fn. 14)