Series PR1/10 - Croydon Parish: Wasteland Trustees Records

The Waste Lands Trustees (formally known as the Corporation for the Management of the Wastelands of the Parish of Croydon) were appointed under the terms of the Croydon Enclosure Act of 1797, to take responsibility for the various small but scattered parcels of land which came into the hands of the Parish. They first met on 2 May 1801. In theory, the Trustees were subsidiary to the Parish Vestry, but in practice they became the more powerful body. An Act of Parliament for Rebuilding the Court House and Butter Market House of 1806 empowered them to carry out this rebuilding, financed through the sale of some of the parcels of land in Norwood. The result was the new Town Hall (Courthouse and Cornmarket), completed in 1809; and the Butter Market of 1810. Thereafter, the Trustees were responsible for maintaining these buildings, for running the markets, and for various other matters, such as (in the early 1820s) paving the footpaths and causeways of the town. The Trustees consisted of the Vicar, Churchwardens, Overseers, and six inhabitants of Croydon. In their early years, they met at irregular intervals, but normally a few weeks apart. Meetings became gradually less frequent, and in January 1826 it was agreed that they should meet half-yearly: in fact, they more often met annually from then on. Their first meeting(s) was/were held in the Greyhound Inn, but from December 1801 they met in the Town Hall, except for the period when it was being rebuilt, 1807-1809, when they met either at the King's Arms or in the Vestry Room. In August 1805, the Trustees authorised the engraving of a common seal. As other local government bodies were established in Croydon, the Waste Lands Trustees became something of an anachronism. They were wound up in July 1869, and their property passed to the Local Board of Health.