LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
The Abbot of Westminster claimed various liberties, including view of
frankpledge, in Teddington as in his other manors,
and in 1265 his tenants there, like those in Staines,
stopped attending the hundred court. (fn. 35) In the 14th
century two or three courts were held in the manor
each year. One of them was held between April and
June and included view of frankpledge. From the later
part of the century the view was regularly held on the
Wednesday after Trinity Sunday, and in the 15th
and early 16th centuries there was only one other
court each year. The lessee of the manorial demesne
conducted the courts in the later Middle Ages, though
he handed the profits over to the abbey: before this
they had been held by the abbey's bailiff. The last
court baron was held in 1865, and courts leet had
been discontinued at least a century before. These
later courts were held at one or other of the village
inns. (fn. 36) In Richard II's reign the court appointed
a constable, beadle, rent-collector, and two aletasters. (fn. 37) In the later 17th century the manor court
apparently failed to appoint a constable in several
years, (fn. 38) and by 1822 this duty had been taken over
by the vestry. At this time the vestry also appointed a
beadle as well as two head-boroughs, who may have
been manorial officials at an earlier date. (fn. 39)
Records of the vestry are preserved, with gaps in
the earlier years, from 1739. (fn. 40) In the mid-18th century the vestry met sometimes as often as every week,
with a dozen to twenty people present, but later in
the century both the number of meetings and the
interest taken in them by the parishioners decreased.
This may have been partly due to the growing age
and later the death of Stephen Hales (curate c. 1709-
61), who perhaps attended more frequently than his
immediate successors and certainly played a very
important part in village life. (fn. 41) In his time the vestry
took an interest in changes made to the church building, including the provision of a vestry-room, which
enabled them to dispense with the hospitality of the
village inns for their meetings. (fn. 42) The chief reason
for the decline in the vestry, however, was probably
that Teddington managed to avoid the prevalent increase in business connected with looking after the
poor. In the mid-18th century the parish seems to
have concentrated largely on obtaining settlement
certificates as a method of controlling applications
for relief. They also paid some of the poor to open
the gates which barred the main roads at the entrance to the village. In 1738 Matthias Perkins, the
lord of the manor, gave the parish a piece of land on
the edge of the common on which four almshouses
were built in the next year or so, partly by subscriptions (fn. 43) and partly by a legacy from Sir Francis
Bridgeman, Bt. (d. 1740). (fn. 44) These almshouses stood
in Park Lane (fn. 45) and were used as cheap or free dwellings for poor families, not as conventional workhouses, and consequently needed little administration. (fn. 46) In 1778 the parish considered building a
workhouse but instead, in 1785, they enlarged the
almshouses and contracted with Hampton parish to
receive the Teddington poor in its workhouse. (fn. 47)
Hampton, and later Harmondsworth, Kingston, and
even Hoxton workhouses, went on taking the parish
poor with brief intermissions until the 1820's. (fn. 48) As a
result the vestry had virtually only to provide clothes,
together with doles for paupers not in the workhouse,
and in 1797 and 1811 it resolved to send all those
getting regular relief to the workhouse. (fn. 49) On several
occasions it tried dispensing with the services of
workhouses elsewhere: (fn. 50) in 1803 a committee was
appointed to find a better method, but the vestry ended
by resolving to pay no more rents for poor people
and by building additions to the almshouses in 1804
and 1811. (fn. 51) These were known as the poor-house
but were generally used in the same way as the old
houses.
About 1820 a revival took place in the vestry, and
monthly meetings became the rule, held from 1832
in the Public School. (fn. 52) In 1819 a select vestry of
twelve was appointed, but it is not referred to later. (fn. 53)
In 1820 the vestry resolved to vary the usual parish
practice by sending one churchwarden and one overseer out of office each Easter. (fn. 54) In 1823 they censured
the highway surveyors for the irregularities of their
accounts (fn. 55) and in 1822 they seem to have appointed a
herdsman for the first time. (fn. 56) In 1860 a second herdsman was appointed and parish herdsmen continued
to serve for some years afterwards. (fn. 57) The pound
was in Park Lane. (fn. 58) In 1822 a subscription was
formed to provide patrols and from 1826 nightwatchmen were appointed each winter. (fn. 59) In 1837 the
parish adopted the provisions relating to watching
in the Lighting and Watching Act, 1833, and carried
them out until the Metropolitan Police came to
Teddington in 1840. (fn. 60) The lighting part of the Act
was adopted for the main roads in 1852. (fn. 61) The parish
cage or roundhouse opposite the almshouses was
apparently no longer used for its proper purpose in
1836. (fn. 62) The stocks, which Westminster Abbey had
provided in the 16th century, were last mentioned in
1751. (fn. 63) A parish constable was still chosen in 1864
though the appointment of a head-borough was discontinued the year before. (fn. 64) A parish fire-engine was
bought in 1831 and put in the care of the beadle. (fn. 65)
On the eve of the Poor Law Reform Act the vestry
also began to improve its system of relief. In 1831 it
appointed a paid assistant overseer, resolved to keep
at work any labourers coming on the parish in winter,
and repaired part of the almshouses to be a proper
workhouse, run on strict lines. The result was
apparently a reduction in expenditure and a check
on 'the progress of pauperism'. The workhouse was
sold in 1838, after Teddington had been joined to
Staines Union. It is still in existence as nos. 32, 34,
36, 38/40, Park Lane. The parish retained the older
almshouses for the use of the poor. (fn. 66) They later
came under the control of the urban district council
and were demolished in 1955, when they were in bad
repair. The last one to be occupied had fallen vacant
in 1944. (fn. 67)
With the ending of parochial responsibility for
poor relief and policing, vestry meetings again became less frequent, and the appointment of officers
was their principal duty. Drainage, however, caused
growing concern, as the main drain down the village
street became less and less adequate. A succession of
boards and committees was formed from 1818 with
little result, (fn. 68) and eventually, after some years of
disagreement, a local board of health was formed in
1867, largely for this purpose. (fn. 69)
The board and the urban district council which
succeeded it comprised fifteen members. (fn. 70) In 1900
the urban district was divided into four wards. (fn. 71) It
became part of Twickenham borough in 1937 after
having protested against the amalgamation since it
was first suggested. (fn. 72) In 1875 the local board also
became a burial board after a controversy in which
the Anglican clergy, who were unrepresented on the
board, strongly opposed the opening of a cemetery
outside Church control. (fn. 73) Feeling ran high in the
board and council on many issues, including for
instance the provision of drains, the building of the
footbridge, and the housing question, and a good
deal of money was spent on legal costs in connexion
with the first of these. (fn. 74) A ratepayers' association was
formed in 1875. (fn. 75) The council was never organized
strictly on the lines of national political parties, but
the use of party names began some years before it
was dissolved. There were three Labour councillors
in 1937. (fn. 76)
The local board met at first in rented rooms (fn. 77) and
later in the Town Hall, a privately owned building
erected in 1886. (fn. 78) The board bought Elmfield House
just before the urban district council was formed,
and the council used it until 1937. (fn. 79) It was still used
by departments of Twickenham borough council in
1957. At the time when the local board was formed
the vestry was served by an assistant overseer, an
inspector of nuisances, and an assistant surveyor, who
were all paid, as well as by the clerk and minor parish
officials. (fn. 80) The board at once added a treasurer, and
other officials were appointed as its statutory duties
increased. (fn. 81) By 1937 it had a staff of about 35. (fn. 82) The
board's first rate was levied at 6d. in the pound and
brought in about £475. (fn. 83) The urban district council
began by spending about £12,000 a year and this was
doubled before the First World War, and continued
to rise steeply afterwards. The last rate was 10s. 4d.
and brought in about £37,000. (fn. 84)
The local board had committees for finance,
general purposes, sewerage, and the fire brigade, as
well as for such temporary objects as naming and
numbering streets. (fn. 85) The seven committees of the
first urban district council had grown to twelve by
the 1920's. (fn. 86) The drainage of the parish, the inadequacy of which had been the chief reason why the
board was formed, continued to absorb much of its
attention until the sewage works in Broom Road were
made in 1888. They were enlarged in 1912. The
making of roads and the drainage of individual houses
also occupied the board. (fn. 87) In its capacity of burial
board it opened the cemetery in Shacklegate Road
in 1879. (fn. 88) The first recreation ground was opened in
Manor Road shortly after 1881, (fn. 89) and the public
swimming bath in Vicarage Road in 1931. (fn. 90) The
council started a library and reading room in Broad
Street in 1900 and in 1906 the Carnegie library in
Waldegrave Road was opened. (fn. 91) By 1930 it had
10,000 books in the lending department and 1,000
for reference. (fn. 92) In 1937 it became a branch library of
Twickenham. Before its dissolution the council built
323 council houses. (fn. 93)