New Alresford Town Trust

Alresford seems to have shown some of the characteristics of a borough in medieval times: the king made a grant of pavage to the bailiff and good men in 1302, which suggests the beginnings of a corporate body, and the town sent one or two representatives to several of Edward I's Parliaments. However, it never seems to have received a charter of incorporation, perhaps because the decline of Winchester in the second half of the 14th century, together with fire and plague, affected the town's prosperity. There was a recovery under the Tudors, and by the time of Edward VI there is a reference to property held in common by the inhabitants, perhaps suggesting that the corporation, which consisted of a bailiff and eight burgesses until 1890, was already in existence. This was the body whose property and responsiblities were vested in the Town Trust when the corporation failed to secure its continued existence as a borough in the reform of local government of the 1880s-90s

Summary of Documents Held

New Alresford borough (pre-1890): court book, 1615-1890; registers of oaths taken (bailiffs, constables, jurors, etc.), 1825-85; translations of New Alresford charter (1572), 18th- 19th centuries; fire brief, 1689; deeds, 18th-19th centuries; copy of inclosure act and map, 1805; School Board election satire, 19th century; quit rent registers, c1837-86; correspondence, 1859-89

New Alresford Town Trust (post-1890): includes: minute books, 1890-200; draft minute books, 1890-1952; Charity Commission schemes and correspondence, 1890-2007; account books and papers, 1890-2008; vouchers, 1890- 1915, 1935-1959, 1983-98; clerk's general correspondence files, 1890-1909, 1936-60; chairmen's correspondence files, 1936-55; files relating to sheep fair and pleasure fair, water supply, recreation ground and highways, 1895-1970

Charities: tickets for Pink and Covey's Gifts, 1897-1910; accounts, schemes and correspondence relating to various charities, 1886-1995; papers concerning minibus fund, 1979-2003

Property: title deeds to properties in Broad Street, Pound Hill, and papers concerning the Fair Field and Recreation Ground, 1694-1960

Alresford Parish Council: vouchers, 1920s; draft minute book, 1942-53; papers concerning housing, 1945-8.

For an account book of the Bailiff and Burgesses, 1744-1890, see 7M74?DB1