5
1826 – Romsey people buy a Public Walk and Pleasure Ground
Latham's bankruptcy leads to substantial sales of land
John Latham was the son of Romsey's local historian, Dr Latham, but clearly did not inherit his father's thoughtfulness and circumspection. Over a period of about 20 years, this ambitious but reckless businessman acquired a chain of local inns and property mostly connected with his brewing activity. However, the properties were all mortgaged and he solved financial problems as they occurred by arranging further loans including substantial sums from his father. In 1817 the debt-laden business collapsed and John Latham was declared bankrupt (1). As a result, a considerable amount of land and property to the south and the west of the Abbey Church came up for sale. Much of this was bought by Romsey Corporation and part of it was to become the town's Public Walk and Pleasure Ground.
This building was the Town Hall in the 1820s. It stood on the site of the present Church Hall
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Romsey's first Town Hall in the in Market Place had housed the Corporation since the 17th century but as the Corporation grew, it gradually transferred its base to the Audit House which had been built in the middle of Market Place by the first Lord Palmerston. By 1820, the Audit House was in a dire state of repair and there was an urgent need for the Corporation to find themselves new premises. It was suggested that the old malthouse (built by John Latham on the site of the present church rooms) could be converted into a town hall at a reasonable cost.The Corporation resolved to purchase it and by the 9th November 1822 the malthouse and much of the surrounding land became theirs. |
The Corporation were clearly shrewd operators and had thought carefully about how to make the purchase a financial success by selling off parts of the land they did not need. Their plans can be seen in the deeds of 1822 which they marked up to show the three areas that they proposed to sell on to John Young, James Sharp and the Church. The piece of land to be sold to the Church was the 24ft wide strip on the west side of the Abbey Church, the Processional Way, which Churchwarden Biggs had fought to recover in the 1770s.
Lord Palmerston proposes the town should have a Public Walk and Pleasure Ground
At about this time, Lord Palmerston noted that the town had no public ground and proposed that the area to the west of the Abbey (now sold to Young and Sharp) be repurchased and turned into a Public Walk and Pleasure Ground. He offered to pay £100 towards the cost. The Corporation immediately responded to this proposal by appointing a committee to re-purchase the land by public subscription. To complete the purchase they needed to raise £541. Sir Thomas Heathcote, MP for Hampshire, was to head the committee and its members included the Mayor (James Sharp), the Town Clerk (Henry Holmes).
At this time, the Corporation, the Church and Lord Palmerston (the largest ratepayer and landowner) held power in Romsey. These three worked closely together and between them were responsible for most things spiritual and temporal that took place in the town. It was in the interests of inhabitants to avoid conflict with this powerful triumvirate; thus Young and Sharp readily agreed to sell their newly acquired pieces of land back to the Corporation.
Expressed in the conveyances (2) describing the repurchase of the pieces of land dated the first and second days of December 1826 are the words that provide the legal basis for the Public Walk and Pleasure Ground. The Corporation was to hold the land:
"Upon Trust to permit the said pieces or parcels of ground to be used at all times for ever hereafter as a Public Walk or Pleasure Ground for all orderly and peaceable persons".
These words are clearly intended to create a Public Trust and such expression in conveyances is still recognised as absolute by the modern day Charity Commission.
The Church, however, did not participate in Lord Palmerston's scheme to form a Public Walk and Pleasure Ground. It had ideas of its own.
A new burial ground?
At about this time, churchwardens decided to seek legal advice from their Counsel on a number of issues.
Among the questions asked in this document was one concerning the degree of control that churchwardens could exert over the appearance of pews which parishioners had been ‘customising’ to suit themselves. Some of the pews had been removed and then returned decorated with screens and drapes, etc as the ‘owners’ fancied. The interior of the church was clearly beginning to look like a circus. Churchwardens wanted to know what they could do about it.
Another question related to burial charges. Churchwardens were restricted to charging no more than 10/6d for burials in the churchyard but surely they could charge much more than that if the burial was in other ground such as the land that lay to the west and south of the church?
It was clear that the Church did not plan to buy the 24 ft wide strip in order to return it to its original use as a Processional Way. They wanted to use it as a burial ground if they could charge more for burials there than in the churchyard.
Henry Holmes is outraged
News of this plan reached the Town Clerk, Henry Holmes. He was a much-respected solicitor and a Master Extra in Chancery; a high office in the Court of Chancery. He had been involved in all the purchases and repurchases of land concerning the Public Walk and Pleasure Ground as well as being a member of the fundraising committee. Consequently he felt passionately that gravestones should not be set in the Processional Way to spoil the view of the west end of the church across the Public Walk.
He expressed his outrage at the churchwardens’ proposal in a public notice addressed to all parishioners in May 1825.
In the notice, Holmes made the point that on best legal advice the Processional Way belonged to the parishioners and not to the Church. The churchwardens had no power over it except as trustees for the parishioners. Consequently it was for the parishioners to decide whether or not the land should be used as a burial ground. He urged them to reject the churchwardens’ scheme and to support Lord Palmerston:
"…in his generous endeavour to promote the convenience of the inhabitants [of Romsey], and exhibit to advantage, a magnificent specimen of Gothic Architecture".
Holmes was successful in his appeal and the Processional Way was not used for burials. He would not have been happy, however, to know that in the 21st century, a supposedly more enlightened age, we allow half of the Public Walk to be used as a car park. This diminishes the view of the west end of the church far more than a few gravestones near the wall of the church would have done.
Romsey gained its Public Walk and Pleasure Ground in 1826 and it was an immediate success. It was used for shows and fairs and was well tended by the Corporation. Mudies Hampshire (1840) describes it as “… a spot of green tastefully laid out with shrubs and flowers, and along the green there flows one of the ramifications of the Test.”
Because of Holmes’ background and his intense interest in the matter, it seems likely that he would have drawn up a full Deed of Trust for the Public Walk that would have defined its boundaries, its use and the Trustees. To date, only a part of such a document has been found; it specifies the obligations of the Trustees and is reproduced as an appendix to this book.
Did the Church ever buy the Processional Way?
When the Corporation bought land to the south and the west of the Abbey Church in 1822 it made clear how it would dispose of land that it did not want. The original deeds are marked up to show that pieces of land were to be sold to James Sharp and John Young and the 24 ft strip adjacent to the Abbey Church was to be sold to the Church
As explained earlier, the Church's interest in buying this strip of land was to use it as a burial ground and, in fact, in a subsequent indenture the strip is marked "Burying Ground" whereas in 1822 it was described as "Land to be sold to the Church". In subsequent deeds, the land is described as "Church property". No deeds describing a conveyance of the 24ft strip from the Corporation to the Church have been found. This is remarkable if the Church really did buy the land as all other documents relating to this matter have been well preserved.
The intention to purchase the land was clear in the Vestry minutes of the time which state that following the purchase, the deeds were to be framed and hung on the Vestry wall. However, it seems most likely that the churchwardens changed their minds about buying the land when they heard from Counsel that they would not be allowed to charge more to use it as a burial ground than elsewhere. On the 19th May 1825 the Vestry minutes noted: "That the land at the west end of the Church belonging to the parish be used as a Public Walk in the daytime and not as a burying ground". (N. B. the Public Walk was to be kept locked at night).
This seems to confirm that the churchwardens had abandoned their intention to buy the land and in fact, the subject is not mentioned in subsequent Vestry minutes. This would seem to be fairly conclusive evidence that the Church never bought the land. The problem remains however that in many subsequent conveyances the strip is described as being the property of the Church. It is one of those things which will probably remain a mystery and it might just as well remain so.
1. 'The Latham Bankruptcy, 1817' by Barbara Burbridge in LTVAS publication POTS & PAPERS No6, Autumn 1994.
2. These conveyances are held by Test Valley Borough Council in Andover.
