In 1598, after terrible trade recessions Parliament passed an Act which became the basis of the Poor Law for two hundred years:

(i) Independence was upheld as being better than relief; parents and children; if able to do so, were legally bound to support each other, while refusal to work or to accept reasonable wages constituted Vagabondage.

(ii) Begging became illegal.

(iii) The able bodied vagabond should be set to work in the House of Correction, or the Gaol.

(iv) Relief was to be found for the aged and impotent, whether by alms or by work on the provided stock of Hemp Wool and so forth; poor children should be apprenticed; any parish might build “Houses of Dwelling” for the impotent poor.

(v) Immediate responsibility lay on the Parish overseers, though the Magistrates were responsible for their appointment and activity. The area for relief was the individual’s native place, or usual place of work.

(vi) But in aid of a poor parish, the Justices might order a rate on the whole neighbourhood.

In Norfolk, about 500 children a year were apprenticed. Not merely was relief made a public duty but the government insisted that, however it was done, work must be found for the workless.

However, there was passive resistance and selfishness from some Squires. By the late 18th century, Workhouses and Gilbert Union Houses of Industry, named after an Act of Parliament, had been introduced and one such was situated in Melton Constable, which included Brinton parish within its area of responsibility. Magistrates appointed guardians to run the ‘Houses of Industry’ for the ‘aged, infirm and impotent poor’.

In 1869 the Melton Constable Gilbert Union was dissolved and the parishes of Brinton and Melton Constable were added to the Walsingham Union with its workhouse at Great Snoring.

Parishes also supported paupers within their homes and some Lords of the Manor provided relief for their tenants. As the 1861 census and 1881 census, of the Walsingham Union workhouse, showed were no inmates having lived in Sharrington it might be assumed that Sharrington’s estate owner looked after his tenants.

This is further supported by the following:

…..”The poor have almost £10 yearly from £40 left by Christopher Ringer and another…£15 by William Arnold and Christopher West: also £100 left by the late Rev. Sir Edward R. Jodrell, Bart. The interest on all the above is spent on blankets and clothing.”

The following is from the Return for Gilbert’s Act, 1786, re Norfolk charities:-

“£200 left by Mr Ringall, and £20 left by Mrs Daubeney, both in the hands of the Churchwarden and Overseers, producing £1 16s. yearly for the poor, who receive no contribution from the parish”.

The account of the village goes on to say

“This is not mentioned in any Terrier since 1735, when mention is made of £41 as then belonging to the parish, in the hands of T. Rix and Benjamin Pyle, for the use of the poor.”

The care taken to look after the poor of Sharrington is recorded in the local press of 1866 when the Reverend Sir E. R. Jodrell, Bart of Sall Park made his annual Christmas present to the poor on his estates at Sall, Saxlingham and Sharrington. Due to severe weather four hundred yards of flannel was distributed amongst the cottagers in proportion to the number of family members in the household.

It would seem that Sharrington was indeed a well-cared for community by its Lords of the manor.

By Peter Chapman 2000

Resources:

• An Historical Atlas of Norfolk. Published by Norfolk Museums Service. 2^nd
• 1861 & 1881 census
• Local newspaper archives.
• Bryant churches. Hundred of Holt. 1902