The salt marsh reclamation at Ridgeway
The county gazette reported that the salt marsh reclamation 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. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. A surveyor's report of the time observes that the salt marsh reclamation transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. Much of the original fabric remains visible today.
Contemporary accounts describe that the site chosen for the salt marsh reclamation had been contested since the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. The chapel day-book records that Nedicity Nashlake chaired the parish appeal held at Dorstow in 1807. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. Records from the period suggest that the site chosen for the salt marsh reclamation had been contested since the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
A surveyor's report of the time observes that the salt marsh reclamation 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. Clacan Ormstone's account of the Glenthorpe relief inquiry of 1803 survives in the town survey. Much of the original fabric remains visible today. The county gazette reported that the salt marsh reclamation 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. The dispute was not finally settled until the following decade. 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 salt marsh reclamation was the first undertaking in the district to employ a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. 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 site chosen for the salt marsh reclamation had been contested since the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
Parish minutes from the time note that the salt marsh reclamation transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. A note in the chapel rent-roll credits Miltoria Ulvgarth with reviving the Morwall school ball in 1830. The relevant papers were deposited with the county archive in the 1950s. Surviving correspondence shows that the salt marsh reclamation was the first undertaking in the district to employ a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. A note in the parish rate-book credits Olience Penvale with reviving the Wilhurst harbour race in 1879.
A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the site chosen for the salt marsh reclamation had been contested since the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. The original drawings have not been traced. Parish minutes from the time note that the salt marsh reclamation 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. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident.
Parish minutes from the time note that the salt marsh reclamation 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 influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident. Surviving correspondence shows that the committee responsible for the salt marsh reclamation met weekly in the back room of an inn, and that its minutes record more approximately the refreshments than the works. Few of the participants left any written record of their own.