Will I enjoy it?

There can be a lot of minutes to go through, so it is better to pick a parish that you are interested in.  You will learn a lot about the personalities in the parish as well as how local and global events such as 2 major wars and periods of depression impacted on small, largely rural, areas.  You are watching history unfold at a local level.  Hopefully, you will also find material about rights of way.

Here and here are some stories I discovered from parish minutes

A bit of history

Up until 1894 the parish was the major arm of local government and decisions taken by it were hugely important.  Up to this date the parish was responsible for all highways, including footpaths and bridleways.  It was also responsible for lots of other aspects of daily life.  Up until the 1830s it was also responsible for the poor of the parish, so represented the local welfare state.  Historically parishes were funded by tithes, so they had quite large sums of money for the times.

Up to 1894 “parish” meant the Church.  Secular and ecclesiastical matters were the responsibility of the Vestry, a meeting of parishioners controlled by the rector. The Vestry is so named because traditionally they met in the Vestry or robing room.

The other great power in the area was the Lord of the Manor.

1894

In 1894 this all changed.  Rural and Urban district councils were formed.  Legally these became responsible for all highways including bridleways and footpaths.  However not all of them took their duties about anything but roads seriously.  I went through the whole of the Newhaven rural district Council minutes from 1894 to 1934 only to find that the first time they considered footpaths was in 1930 when they wrote to a parish council to tell them that footpaths were nothing to do with the District Council.

At the same time secular parish councils were formed.  Members were elected. These did not deal with church affairs and were no longer formally responsible for highways.  But in practice many parish councils were concerned with footpaths and bridleways.  They often discussed problems with these and they had to be consulted about any diversions of highways or any plans to stop them up entirely.  Sometimes they still repaired paths out of the parish funds.

Parish Councils had to meet regularly and also to have an annual parish meeting.  Very small parishes did not have to have councils, but only had an annual parish meeting.

Parochial church councils were also formed to deal with ecclesiastical affairs.  These are not of interest to us.

From 1930

Legislation in 1929 transferred responsibility for highways, including bridleways and footpaths to county councils, although sometimes they delegated their powers back to urban and rural district councils.  The role of the parish remained the same.

As a result of the 1932 Rights of Way Act some councils decided to survey their rights of way (in Sussex this happened in both East and West Sussex) Parishes were asked to say what rights of way existed in their parish.  In the 1950s parish councils were consulted again as part of the process of establishing the first definitive map.

Parish Councils meet to this day but their last significant rights of way role was in the first definitive map process.

Over the years many parish boundaries have changed.  So the parish today is not always exactly the same as the parish once was.  More recently some parishes have merged.

FINDING THE PARISH MINUTES

Many parish councils have found it convenient to house their old minutes in the county archives.  However there is no obligation to do so, and some may hold them themselves.  Realistically the only places to look for parish minutes are at the county archive/records office or the parish. Start with the county archive.  If you can find nothing there contact the parish clerk.  Most parishes have web sites with an email address for them.

Looking at the archive catalogue

Search the online catalogue.   Let us take the example of the imaginary parish of Boxford.   Start by searching for “Boxford Parish Council minutes”.

Also search for “Boxford Vestry” and “Boxford Parish” or even “Boxford”

Most archives have a prefix for all their parish records, typically “Par”  They may have a number for each parish so that  Par 27/……, for example has all the records for Boxford.

Anything that says “Parochial Council” is about the church and can be ignored unless you want to study the repair of the church nave etc.

If you are still lost email the archive and ask them what parish minutes they have for Boxford, if any.  If there are none then contact the parish council clerk.

Sometimes you will find that the parish minutes are lost so your search must end. But this is unusual.

Looking at the minutes.

You may have found some vestry records.  In particular you may have found a “surveyor of highways record book” or a “surveyor of highways rates book”.  Before you get too excited you should be aware that these are often list of the rates of pay and records of who was paid and what materials were bought.  Only occasionally will you find a record of what route the money was spent on!

Personally I have never found anything useful in vestry records and tend to start with the parish council records for the period 1894.  But this may be a feature of Sussex, where I am researching.  I tend to go up to 1960, or the last entry about the definitive map in the 1950s, whichever is earlier.

Assuming that you have found some parish minutes for this period, it is time to start going through them.  There may be an index at the beginning and it is useful to look through for terms like “footpath”  “ bridle road”  but do not rely on the index.  Often it was only partly completed.

I would start with the oldest minutes so you can see the various stories develop.

Sometimes there are notes on the topic of discussion in the margins of the minutes, which helps.

Sometimes there are footpath sub-committees, which is handy, but often the sub-committee minutes have been lost.  If you find a folder of sub-committee minutes look at it first.

If there was only a parish meeting there will only be minutes for the annual meeting. This may not be useful.

What you are looking for

I tend to copy anything in the minutes about footpaths or bridleways without examining the entries too closely .  I then examine what I have copied when I get home to see if they refer to routes that are not now on the rights of way map

Here are some things you might find:

• Discussion of poor standard of routes, or debate about whether they are public or private. (annoyingly it can sometime involve finding where a path from, say, Mrs May’s cottage to Old Barn actually was) Try an internet search for “Old Barn Boxford”  or consult a map of the period here) Once you have located them you can see if they are rights of way today.
• Consultations about proposed diversions or stopping up of routes. If someone applied to the quarter sessions then the parish had to be consulted.  The route of the old and new routes is usually described.  There are the same issues with finding out where the route was as in 1.
• Routes that the parish came up with in conjunction with the rights of way act 1932 or the first definitive map (although annoyingly the minutes often just say “the map of paths was approved”).

Look for anything about footpaths and bridleways, and even for roads that may now have disappeared, even if the minutes are not about routes that you have already identified.

Sifting what you have copied

Sometimes you will find that the route discussed is on the rights of way map.  Sometimes it  will not be possible to identify where the route was.  You can put this material aside.

But you will also find routes that can be identified that are not on the rights of way map today.  These need further research.

Chris Smith January 2023