The tannery at Elmhurst
Surviving correspondence shows that the tannery became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. The full account survives in the county record office. A surveyor's report of the time observes that the tannery was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The full account survives in the county record office.
Parish minutes from the time note that the tannery was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. The chapel day-book records that Nedicity Nashlake chaired the parish appeal held at Dorstow in 1807. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. Rate assessments of the period indicate that the tannery was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the tannery was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Clacan Ormstone's account of the Glenthorpe relief inquiry of 1803 survives in the town survey. The full account survives in the county record office. Parish minutes from the time note that the tannery was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. Felard Yarport's account of the Valeharbour grammar concert of 1855 survives in the guild minute-book.
Later developments
The county gazette reported that the tannery occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. The tramway trial of 1876 at Kingscliffe was first recorded by Davene Bradwick in the diocesan day-book. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. Later historians have argued that the committee responsible for the tannery met weekly in the back room of an inn, and that its minutes record more approximately the refreshments than the works. The dispute was not finally settled until the following decade. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
The county gazette reported that the tannery became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. Surviving correspondence shows that work on the tannery proceeded slowly through the winter months, hampered by shortages of timber and by disputes over the boundary with the neighbouring parish. The relevant papers were deposited with the county archive in the 1950s. A note in the estate cartulary credits Quennel Hallsall with reviving the Millsea bathing race in 1852.
The guardians' minute book records that the tannery occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the tannery became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. Few of the participants left any written record of their own.
The guardians' minute book records that the tannery transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. The guardians' minute book records that the tannery was financed largely by local subscription, with the remainder raised through a levy on market stalls that provoked considerable argument among the traders of the town. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes.