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Events around the millennium - the Charity Commission intervenes
The Public Walk rediscovered
In the 1990s, a local historian (who prefers to remain anonymous) came across references to the Public Walk and Pleasure Ground and transcribed a number of letters and indentures from the 19th century which related to it.
The Abbey Church in 2007
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These indicated that the open ground to the west of the Abbey had at some time been placed in trust for the benefit of the inhabitants of Romsey. He had discussed the subject with senior TVBC officers and had arranged a meeting to take place in March 1999 between the Romsey’s Town Clerk, Mayor, deputy Mayor and a representative from TVBC’s legal department. At this time he asked the writer to take his place and pursue the matter. |
The meeting proved to be a turning point in this story. The TVBC representative was familiar with much of the documentation concerning the building of the old vicarage in 1855 and the new one in 1986. It emerged that the originals of the 1826 indentures, in which Romsey Corporation repurchased the land it had sold to Young and Sharp, were held by the Council in Andover. These indentures are critical as they are the only documents that have legal effect on the Trust governing the Public Walk and Pleasure Ground.
The situation at that time looked very confusing. Only parts of the open ground appeared to be covered by the Trust, but in any case, was the Trust still valid? Who were the current owners of the land; did the Church have any rights resulting from its continued use of part of the land (known in legal terms as adverse possession) and how did HCC highway rights over the road crossing the Public Walk impact on all this? Following the meeting, the writer gathered together all the available information on the Public Walk and presented it in a report to the Town Council.
The report was based on the previous work carried out by a local historian and was extended by much additional material from Hampshire Record Office, the Broadlands collection at Southampton University, TVBC archives in Andover and the local history society, the LTVAS Group. The resulting 30-page report was published in June 1999. It reviewed the history of the land and point-by-point it analysed and refuted the Church’s solicitors claim to part of it (the grassed area between the two vicarages). It also recommended that the Town Council should seek independent legal advice to determine the interests of all the parties involved.
The Hampshire Association of Parish and Town Councils (HAPTC)
The report was presented to the Town Council at a meeting in April 2000 where it was decided to seek legal advice from HAPTC which they can obtain at no cost. In June 2000 the Town Clerk, the writer and Ted Mason (a lawyer with experience of charitable trusts, village greens and highway land status) met with the honorary legal adviser to HAPTC. In his view, the Trust did subsist and he proposed that the Town Council should write to the Church Authorities and to TVBC asking them to acknowledge it.
However, the situation was complicated by the fact that only parts of the original Public Walk were covered by the available documents (the 1826 conveyances from Young and Sharp to the Corporation) and these parts were not very well defined. During the following year, this problem was further researched and discussed with the TVBC lawyer in an attempt to get a better understanding of what took place when the old and the new vicarages were built
The Charity Commission intervenes
In May 2001, a discussion with the Charity Commission showed that the Public Walk was a matter of interest to them despite the time that had elapsed since the Trust was set up. It was decided to ask the Commission if it considered the statements in the 1826 conveyances were sufficient to constitute a Charitable Public Trust.
Their reply on 21st November 2001 was surprising. Citing legal precedents, the Charity Commission not only considered the Public Walk to be a Charitable Trust but they had also written to TVBC requiring them to register the Trust with the Commission
Subsequent correspondence from the Legal Services department in TVBC to Romsey Town Council explained that TVBC had no choice about registering the land subject to the Trust with the Charity Commission as it was required under Statutory Powers imposed on the Council by the Charity Commissioner. The Charity Commission is not empowered to define the boundaries of the land involved; that is a matter for the Trustees. Hence, the first thing the Council had to do was to define the boundaries and to register the land with the Land Registry. Following that, "The land subject to the Trust will be transferred to a charity as required by the Charity Commissioner".
Conclusion
Hence, at this point, everything was in place to enable the land to be returned to its original purpose: for the benefit of the residents of Romsey.
Registering the land with the Land Registry has revived all the old problems of access that had beset it over the previous 175 years, and a few new ones as well. Nevertheless, when these matters are resolved and the dust has settled, it will be a significant improvement to the town when the setting of the magnificent west end of the Abbey Church is made as attractive as the rest of the land that surrounds it. That has been the objective of those involved in this study.
The Public Walk as it is at present in 2007
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Appendix
The following is a transcription of a document found in the Hampshire Record Office which was almost certainly written in 1855 when Avery Moore was trying to establish a case for purchasing part of the Public Walk from the Corporation. It was found among other papers on the same subject:
“Copy of Trusts in which land vested in Corporation of Romsey is held
| Upon Trust to permit the said Land to be used at all times for ever hereafter as a Public Walk or Pleasure Ground, for all peaceable and orderly persons, so that such persons do confine themselves to, and not deviate from, the Gravel Walks now made upon the said Land. Provided always that it shall be competent for the said Mayor Alderman and Burgesses their Successors and Assignees and their officers at all times to remove and put out all riotous and disorderly persons, and all persons committing any nuisance, doing any damage, or occasioning any disturbance injury or inconvenience whatsoever in or upon the said Land or any part thereof. And for that purpose to lock up and fasten the Gates belonging to the said Land for such times or seasons as the said Mayor Aldermen and Burgesses and their Successors or Assignees shall think proper - it being the intention and meaning of these presents that the said Land shall be only used as a Public Walk or Pleasure Ground by peaceable and orderly persons.” |
