History of the Parish Council

BLACKMORE, HOOK END & WYATTS GREEN PARISH COUNCIL
– a little history

Follow this link for the main History page for Blackmore

Blackmore, Hook End & Wyatts Green is a “civil Parish". The use of the term “parish" here is confusing -- it implies that it is something to do with the church. In fact, it is simply the first level of local government in the UK .

Historically, today's civil parish has indeed evolved from the church parish. Of course, the parish associated with the church of St Laurence , Blackmore, still continues to thrive. But today it has a separate Parochial Church Council, elected by the active members of the church.

In the centuries following the suppression of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the parish council remained a church body. It appointed a constable to keep the peace, and administered the notorious Poor Laws. In the 17th and 18th centuries, this was the only form of local government that most people would come into contact with.

In principle, the work of the church was supposed to be funded by tithes, but after 1540 these were largely appropriated by the local lord of the manor. This and other survivals of mediaeval government were swept away by a series of reforms in the mid-19th century. Tithes were abolished, and gradually the parish councils evolved into lay bodies.

From 1894, Blackmore became part of the Ongar Rural District, until in 1955 this was merged with Epping. Finally, in the local government reorganisation in the 1970s, Blackmore, along with several other local parishes, was reallocated to Brentwood . But throughout these changes, the parish retained its identity and boundaries.

Even in the early census returns in the middle years of the 19th century, Hook End and Wyatts Green represented a very small proportion of the population of the parish. In the 20th century, these were the areas where most of the population expansion took place, and this is recognised by the fact that there are two wards in the parish, those of Blackmore, and of Hook End and Wyatts Green – and Hook End and Wyatts Green now has the larger population. For this reason, the name of the parish council was changed from Blackmore to Blackmore, Hook End and Wyatts Green.

Bruno Giordan

 

 

URL: http://www.blackmorevillage.co.uk/