“The Lots,” a parcel of land so called lying on the banks of the river [23a] in front of Ashburnham House, comprises about four acres, and is the meadow ground formerly allotted to Sir Arthur Gorges by the Lord of the Manor, in lieu of his right of common. [23b] These are, and have been for centuries, the Chelsea Lammas Lands, and have hitherto been accustomed to be opened on the twelfth of August, being the first day of the month according to the Old Style. The graziers, butchers, and others, with their cattle, used formerly to assemble in the lane leading to “The Lots” on the eve of Lammas, and when the clock had struck twelve they entered upon the meadow.
From the report of a committee, printed at page 108, appointed by the vestry in the year 1834 to investigate the state of these town meadows, when it was necessary vi et armis to reassert the invaded privileges of the inhabitants, it appears that “‘The Lots’ are Lammas land, and have been for ages appurtenant to the manor of Chelsea. The Lord of the Manor possesses the right of letting the land on lease for the spring and autumn quarters, beginning with March and ending in August; and the inhabitants at large enjoy the privilege of turning in their cattle from August till February, being the autumn and winter quarters.” Railways, however, and acts of parliament for smoothing down difficulties in their way, have sprung up since those pastoral clays; and the Lord of the Manor having sold his freehold to a railway company, the clerk called the attention of the vestry, on the 8th of May, 1860, to the following advertisement:—
West London Extension Railway Company.—Notice is hereby given, that a Meeting of the Householders, Inhabitants, and Land-owners of the Parish of St. Luke, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex, and other persons interested in the Lammas Lands called “The Lots,” in the said Parish of St. Luke, Chelsea, will be held at the house of Mr. John Sparks Alexander situate in Cremorne Road, in the said parish, and known by the name or sign of the ‘King’s Arms,’ on Wednesday, the 9th day of May next, at Eleven o’clock in the forenoon, for the purpose of appointing a Committee to treat with the Company for the compensation to be paid by them for the extinction of the Lammas and other Commonable Rights, in or over certain land called ‘The Lots’ in the said parish of St. Luke, Chelsea, and which is required by the Company for the purposes of the ‘West London Extension Railway. Act, 1859.’—Dated the 27th day of April, 1860.—Edward Bellamy, Secretary of the Company.
A meeting took place consequently on the 9th of May, at which the following resolution was passed:—
Resolved, that Messrs. William Hall (church warden), John Perry, James Miles, George Wevell Richards, and William Whitehead, being five of the persons entitled to Lammas or other Commonable Rights over or in the piece of land called ‘The Lots Meadow,’ otherwise ‘Chelsea Lot Mead,’ situate in the parish of Saint Luke, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex, and containing by admeasurement three acres, two roods, and thirty perches, or thereabouts, and marked or referred to in the map or plan, and in the book of reference of the West London Extension Railway, deposited with the Clerk of the Peace for the said County of Middlesex, by the number 10 in the said parish of St. Luke, Chelsea, shall be, and they are accordingly, in pursuance of the provisions of the ‘Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845,’ appointed to be a Committee having all such powers as by the ‘Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845’ are conferred upon Committees of like description, to treat with the West London Extension Railway Company for the compensation to be paid for the extinction of all Lammas or other Commonable Rights over or in the said piece of land.
The important question of the boundaries of the parish has occupied considerable attention during the past year, and has been the subject of a reference to a sub-committee of the committee of works and for general purposes, who have still the subject under consideration.
Various memorials and petitions have been presented during the year, to which, as they sufficiently elucidate the subjects of them, and are printed in the appendix (Nos. 23 to 27) no further allusion need be made here.
The “Public Indicator” erected in Sloane Square by permission of the board in May, 1860, was removed in the fallowing March, in consequence of the failure of the proprietors to light it at night, and to provide the promised clock. It is retained in the custody of the vestry, under a clause in the agreement, as a lien for the expenses of its removal and making good the paving.
Plans, books of reference, and parliamentary notices of the “London, Buckinghamshire, and West Midland Railway” (whose intended terminus was in the Pavilion grounds), and of “The London Tramway and Dispatch Company,” were deposited with the Vestry, but both of their bills were unsuccessful. Mr. Train also made an application to the vestry for permission to lay down his tramways in Sloane Street and the King’s Road, but its consideration has been adjourned sine die.
On the twenty-ninth of January, 1861, Mr. Finch laid before the Board a copy of a “Bill to Transfer the Seats in Parliament forfeited by the Borough of St. Albans to the proposed Borough of Chelsea and Kensington,” which Viscount Enfield, M.P. for Middlesex had given notice of his intention to introduce in the House of Commons. Immediately the Government [25] brought in their “Bill for the Appropriation of the Seats Vacated by the Disfranchisement of the Boroughs of Sudbury and Saint Albans,” which contained the following clause: “The parishes of Chelsea and Kensington in the county of Middlesex shall, for the purposes of this act, together form a borough, to be called the borough of Chelsea, and such borough shall, from and after the said first day of November, 1861, return one member to serve in parliament.”