LOCAL GOVERNMENT
About 1250 Peter
of Savoy, lord of Richmond, withdrew the suit
due to the hundred from Swavesey priory's
manor, (fn. 84) and in the 1330s its customary tenants
were attending the honor of Richmond's tourn. (fn. 85)
Courts baron for that manor, later Coventrys,
were recorded from the 16th century to the early
19th, (fn. 86) handling purely tenurial business. Court
rolls survive only between 1621 and 1664. (fn. 87)
By the 17th century that manor's courts were
merely supplementary to those held for Crowlands manor. (fn. 88) In 1299 Crowland abbey's prescriptive rights to view of frankpledge, waif, and
infangthief on its Cambridgeshire manors were
formally recognized. (fn. 89) The abbot perhaps had a
gallows by the Huntingdon road: 12 skeletons
were found buried close together there, (fn. 90) and
Stone field included a Gallows furlong. (fn. 91) Court
rolls survive for Crowlands manor for 1291-
1528 (fn. 92) and for 1633-91, (fn. 93) followed by court
books for 1705-1873 and later. (fn. 94) Besides the
view and tenurial business, the court in the
Middle Ages enforced the assize of ale and
occasionally of bread, usually naming two aletasters yearly from the late 13th century to the
late 15th, (fn. 95) a practice revived in the mid 17th. (fn. 96) In 1441 an aletaster was amerced in the sheriff's
tourn held at Lolworth. (fn. 97) In the 14th and early
15th century the court also appointed the hayward, who collected money recovered in the
courts until a separate collector was appointed
in the 1340s. (fn. 98) From the 1370s to the 1450s the
homage usually named two for each office, from
whom the steward might choose the hayward
and collector, and after the demesne was leased
the reeve also. By the 1410s two caronarii were
named to certify death from disease among
the demesne livestock. (fn. 99) Constables, sometimes
fined from the early 14th century for not
doing their duty, (fn. 1) were named in court from
the 1380s, (fn. 2) a practice continued in the 17th
century. (fn. 3)
Until c. 1400 the court regularly dealt with
minor cases of disorder, assault, bloodshed, and
raising the hue, and occasionally hamsocn (fn. 4) and
scolding, (fn. 5) but only infrequently later. A man
was banished from the vill after conviction on
an appeal of burglary in 1316. (fn. 6) The court was
still enforcing membership of tithings in the late
15th century. (fn. 7) The villagers commonly sued one
another in it for debt, trespass, and other minor
civil pleas, sometimes by wager of law, (fn. 8) until
the 1410s, less often thereafter. (fn. 9) A tenant accused
of theft was punished in 1335 for procuring from
the archdeacon's official letters of excommunication for defamation. (fn. 10) The court still in the
early 15th century discouraged tenants from
suing in outside courts. (fn. 11)
The court enforced bylaws on farming, and
particularly on commoning, from the early 14th
century. (fn. 12) Made c. 1345 by 'the whole community' (fn. 13) and c. 1400 by the assent of the lord
and tenants, (fn. 14) bylaws were formally recorded
from the mid 15th century, (fn. 15) though regularly
only from the 16th. (fn. 16) In the 17th century the
court often made or renewed such bylaws, to be
enforced by the hayward and the annually elected
field reeves. (fn. 17) In making bylaws in the 18th
century, however, the court acted as agent for
the vestry composed of the principal farmers. (fn. 18)
In the 1650s the court also enforced the villagers'
duty to ditch their land for drainage and do one
day's common work on the roads. (fn. 19) After the
1670s it was concerned almost entirely with
tenurial business.
From the mid 17th century the parish was
governed through the vestry, (fn. 20) which named
and supervised constables and other officers. It
managed the town stock and lands for the support of the poor, and occasionally apprenticed
poor children. (fn. 21) In the 1640s it built or rented
dwellings for poor widows. By 1771 the parish
had a workhouse, inhabited by 5 or 6 families. (fn. 22) The cost of poor relief almost doubled between
1776 and 1785 to £110, and again to £220 by
1803, when 23 adults, mostly aged or sick, were
regularly assisted, while 10 children were in a
school of industry. (fn. 23) In the early 1810s the parish
relieved 20-25 people regularly, and 50-60 more
occasionally, at a cost of c. £410 a year in 1813-
14. Thereafter until 1830 expenditure on the
poor ranged between £280 and £340, occasionally exceeding £400, and in 1833 reaching c.
£480. (fn. 24) About 1830 large families received allowances from the rates, while labourers were apportioned among the farmers. (fn. 25) Dry Drayton
was included in the Chesterton poor-law union
in 1836, (fn. 26) and the workhouse was shortly sold. (fn. 27)
Dry Drayton belonged to Chesterton R.D. from
the 1890s (fn. 28) and to South Cambridgeshire district
from 1974. (fn. 29)
The parish council set up in 1894 still maintained an old parish fire engine c. 1907. (fn. 30) About
1950 it sold to Chivers the worked-out gravel
pit by the Huntingdon road allotted at inclosure. (fn. 31) In 1969 Bar Hill received its own parish
council, (fn. 32) whose budget rose from c. £2,700 in
1974-5 to almost £30,000 by 1981-2. (fn. 33)