In September, 1818, there is a letter from George Gutch, on behalf the Grand Junction Canal Company, to ask leave to fill up part of the pond to make a street from the north Wharf-road, which the Vestry agreed to, provided a slip of land, 116 feet long, by 13 feet 6 inches north and 12 feet south, adjoining the Alms’ houses, be given to the Parish by the Company.
In 1825, forty-eight pounds, six shillings and six-pence was paid by Mr. Jenkins, for permission to enclose a piece of waste land near his grounds.
When Mr. Jenkins’s land was sold, the parish attempted to establish their claim to this waste, but the claim set up by the bishop of London and his lessees, as lords of the manor superseded it.
There is a notice on the minutes this year for the first time respecting the interference of the lords of the manor in the disposal of the waste lands. But although these lords at this time claimed for themselves “its entire control,” the vestry, nevertheless, gave their permission to Mr. Orme to enclose a piece opposite his land, near the second milestone on the Harrow road. No mention is made of money paid on this occasion.
As late as 1830 an application from Mr. Nield was laid before the vestry, for pieces of waste adjoining property leased to and purchased by him; and on the seventh of June in the following year, the Rev. chairman reported “that Joseph Neild, Esq., M.P. had paid to the treasurer the following sums for waste lands:”
| No. 1. | Braithwaites’ Executors | 152 | 10 | 0 Consols. |
| ,, 2. | Open Waste, adjoining Chelsea Reach | 30 | 12 | 6 |
| ,, 3. | Open Waste in front of Williams’ Field | 10 | 17 | 6 |
| £203 | 0 | 0 |
What took place with respect to the waste lands previous to 1794, there is, unfortunately, now no means of telling, for no vestry minutes are to be found previous to 1793.
CHAPTER IV.
CHARITY LANDS.
The question “What has become of the Charity Lands?” which has been so often asked in other parishes, has been occasionally put to those in authority in this; but so far as I can discover, no satisfactory answer has been returned—unless indeed we may deem it satisfactory to hear “that charity has been so little needed here, that much of that land which was given for this purpose, has been lost.”
In the “Abstract of the returns of charitable donations for the benefit of poor persons, made to the House of Commons, by the ministers and churchwardens of the several parishes and townships in England and Wales, 1786 to 1788,” we find the following answers returned by the minister and churchwardens of Paddington: