From Chicklade And Pertwood, A Short Parish History by E.R. Barty, M.A., Chicklade, Old Rectory, first published December 1955:
SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN RURAL LIFE
(18th – 19th Centuries)
From the Church books (Registers, Vestry books and Accounts) we can glean many interesting facts that help to illustrate the kind of lives led by the country people in those times. The oldest Register dates from 1721.
A close study of the Church Accounts is very revealing. One is surprised and pleased to find how well the Overseer for the Poor and other members of the Vestry attended to the needs of the poorer parishioners; how carefully the money collected by Parish rates was administered and accounted for. A few items from different years may be quoted.
1795
£85 paid to the poor. A sum of £98 10s. 0d. was collected in Rates.
1799-1800
Bread for the poor cost £40 3s. 7d. In the same year 22 sacks of potatoes at 6/- per sack were bought for distribution.
Such items as the above made us realise that some special state of affairs either local or national had increased the hardships of the poor in those years.
And so to look up our history books – where we at once learn that the state of affairs was national and may be briefly summarised as follows:- Britain was at war with France from 1793 until 1815. Yet during the first years of war the wealth of England increased by a vast amount. Owing to the peculiar circumstances of the times (Green’s History pp.828-9) the distribution of the wealth was only partial. Along with the increase in wealth occurred a large growth in population and this kept the rate of wages low. The rise in the price of wheat brought famine, for England was cut off by the war from the vast cornfields of the Continent and America which nowadays redress from their abundance the losses of a poor harvest. The amount of the Poor Rate rose by fifty per cent. The increase of pauperisation led inevitably to the increase in crime. In the Parish Register of 1781 is recorded a grim incident:-
“In August 1806 two men of the parish were hanged. John Portnall aged 38 years and David Ford aged 28, the former leaving a pregnant widow and six small children. They were privately interred by their friends at 11 o’clock in the evening having been that day executed on the drop erected in the Court of the County Gaol at Fisherton Anger for stealing 7 sheep and 7 lambs the property of John Gales of Stockton and Mr. Henry Phillips of Boyton.’
That story in the Burial Register is by the Rector of Chicklade of that time, the Rev. John Still.
In the following December a daughter was born to Mrs. Portnall.
There were not very many years to pass before the Act for the abolition of Capital Punishment for minor offences was passed by the second Parliament of George IV’s reign. We hope that later generations of Portnalls led happier and more fortunate lives than their ill-starred forebears.
In 1854 is recorded the appointment of a Constable for Chicklade (the first in the parish, we may assume). By a strange turn of Fate his name was Thomas Portnall.
Aid in other ways was given by the Parish to the poor. Many relations and neighbours were repaid for attending to sick persons. In 1807 and again in 1809 the Vestry authorised the acting overseer “to provide a stock of coal and wood for the use of the poor to be delivered to them “at prime cost” on condition of their paying ready money for the same.’ In many cases rents were paid by the Parish each year for poor tenants. When the Parsonage was unoccupied by the Rector, the Vestry let parts of it to different tenants. In the same way Windmill House was occupied by tenants whose rents were paid to the owners out of the Parish Rate.