RECORDS OF THE STROOD PARISH TRUSTEES

SPT

1812-1936

fonds

The Strood Parish Trustees were established by the Strood Local Act of 1812 for the purpose of taking over certain civil and ecclesiastical functions of St. Nicholas' parish, Strood, which the parish officers had been unable to finance under the existing church and Poor Law rates systems. The Strood Local Act was Parliament's response to a petition from the parish vestry. The functions in question were the administration of the Poor Law, normally the responsibility of the parish overseers of the poor supported by the poor rates, and the rebuilding or repair of the parish church and the enlargement of the burial ground, which normally fell to the churchwardens, supported by the church rates. The Trustees established by Parliament comprised 30 members including the rector, churchwardens and four overseers. They acted independently of the vestry, the most important of whose powers, such as setting the poor and church rates, they assumed. The Strood Parish Trustees were unusual in being assigned the task of rebuilding their church. Similar parish authorities, such as the Local Board of Guardians in Chatham (collection LBG) and the Guardians and Trustees of the Poor of the parish of St. Nicholas, Rochester (collection GTNR), only assumed the overseers' poor relief and rating functions. The Poor Law powers of the Trustees proved to be short lived. In 1835 Poor Law administration and management of the original, decayed workhouse of 1721 were handed over to the Strood (or North Aylesford) Board of Guardians, established under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (collection G/ST). The old workhouse was demolished in 1853 and a new one built based on plans drawn up in 1835. Concerning their remaining responsibilities, the Trustees ran into financial difficulties by borrowing more money than the 1812 Act permitted, and a new Act was passed in 1840 (see SPT/5). The rebuilding work envisaged in 1812 was not fully acted on by the Trustees, as the tower remains standing. Regarding the problem of the shortage of burial spaces, this matter only was resolved by the establishment in 1856 of a burial authority, the Strood St. Nicholas Burial Board (collection RCA/B/St). The Trustees, who had also acquired land under the 1812 Act, gradually became a purely charitable organisation, important stages in this process being the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act and the Rating Act of 1925. In 1979 the Strood Parish Trustees became the Strood in Need Charity, but retained their traditional title.