What is Melton Mowbray Town Estate?
Many people who have lived in Melton Mowbray for years know very little about the Town Estate, some even thinking that the Town Estate is part of Melton Borough Council.
But this registered charity is not part of the Council, but was in existence for centuries before Melton Borough Council came into being.
The charity is established ‘‘for the benefit of the inhabitants of the ‘area of benefit’ in such ways as the feoffees see fit’’. The area of benefit equates to the area of the former Urban District of Melton Mowbray as constituted on the 31March 1974. The people living in the area of benefit are members of the charity and are all entitled to vote at the Annual Meetings held on the first Monday in October.
The word ‘feoffee’ is pronounced ‘feffee’ and is from old Anglo-French and means a trustee of a trust which possesses land which produces income.
The Board of feoffees consists of two Townwardens, Senior & Junior, elected annually for a term of one year and of twelve feoffees, each elected for a term of four years, a quarter standing down each year although they are allowed to be re-elected.
Primarily the Town Estate endeavours to enhance the community life of the inhabitants of Melton Mowbray by providing communal facilities and promoting community projects of a charitable nature. The Town Estate owns the Town Parks, Leicester Road Sports Ground and the Asfordby Road Sports Ground and golf course and the All England Ground in Saxby Road. Football, rugby and tennis are regularly played on Town Estate land. For many years the Town Estate has supported popular regular events including the Melton Show, Melton Mowbray Country Fair and the Melton Mowbray Victorian Christmas Fayre.
Thanks to the endeavours and prudence of past feoffees the Town Estate had investments of £2,001,143 at 31 May 2007 and an income of £86,047 provided by the investments and bank interest during 2006/7.
However the main source of revenue was £251,084 from the market tolls and the total income amounted to £484,475 which included income from sports grounds and land rents. It sounds a lot of money but of course it is not cheap to provide and maintain the superior leisure facilities which we have in Melton Mowbray.
The history of the MeltonMowbrayTown Estate is very interesting and in the main is well documented.
What follows is a brief summary of some of the more significant events which have brought the Town Estate to where it is now – a very special, almost unique organisation providing beautiful, well maintained parks, a choice of sports and recreation and street markets which are very business like but also a tourist attraction.
Following the Norman Conquest, the Domesday Book in 1086 showed Melton Mowbray’s weekly market to be the only such market in Leicestershire.
In the 16th Century, across England there were many Town Trusts and Town Estates – in Leicestershire alone there were at least twenty seven and today, those at Somerby, Lutterworth and of course Melton Mowbray still exist.
1549 is accepted as the beginning of the MeltonMowbrayTown Estate although the origin had been the parochial guilds of St John and St Mary. The guilds had owned houses and land which were confiscated by the Crown during the reign of Henry V111.
Some of that property was eventually re-acquired by the town. It passed to Christopher Draper who transferred it to Nicholas Cowlishaw and Thomas Postern. It was then passed, by Deed, to twenty feoffees who were to hold the property in trust using the income to support a school and schoolmaster.
Over the next few decades, more land was purchased, income increased and in addition to supporting the school, the Town Estate paid for repairs to the market crosses and spent considerable money on highways and bridges
Another trust deed was completed in 1793 and in that same year the annual Town Meeting was certainly significant for Melton Mowbray.
Many decisions were made including to provide a girls’ school, a night watch and street lighting using whale oil.
This was all very progressive and demonstrates the farsightedness of Melton people and the growing importance of Melton Mowbray.
In 1835, the town became gas lit and the expense was met by the Town Estate.
In 1848 came the Play Close riots . For many years, Play Close which was owned by the Lord of the Manor Lord Melbourne, had been used for recreation by local people who objected when some residents and business people began to extend their gardens onto Play Close land by building pig sties and cow-houses. A Mr Beaumont charged rent for the extensions, insisting that he had that right. But many people disagreed and during the riots, the buildings were attacked, some were completely demolished and the gardens were destroyed even though Special Constables had been called out to maintain order.
After being approached by a delegation from Melton Mowbray, Lord Melbourne decided in 1849 to sell Play Close to the Town Estate and very importantly to sell the Lordship of the Manor too for £650.
Ownership of the Play Close meant that the Town Estate became officially a provider of leisure and the Lordship of the Manor included the Market rights.
The Market Rights were let out but after many complaints and a Town Meeting, it was agreed that the Town Wardens and a Market Committee should take control of the Market and from that time the income increased steadily.
By 1870 there were too many animals being brought to the town centre and so the Beast Market and the Sheep Market were transferred to a new site in Scalford Road, leased by the Town Estate to the Local Board for £50 per annum. The lease is now held by Melton Borough Council .
By 1882, the Town Estate was providing many services including high quality free education and gas lighting and was maintaining the public wells and pumps, the fire engine , the church clock and the chimes.
However, by 1896, the cost of providing free gas lighting in the town had become prohibitive and the task was handed over to Melton Rural District Council.
As the population of the town was growing it was becoming more difficult for the Town Estate to meet the increasing costs of education and finally in 1902 that responsibility was transferred to LeicestershireCounty Council.
The Town Estate had served the town well, for some centuries inhabitants were provided with free services which were not available in other towns.
But being no longer responsible for education, there opened up more opportunities for provision of leisure.
Over the next seventy years, NewPark and the bandstand, Leicester Road Sports Ground and EgertonPark were purchased. The All England Ground on Saxby Road was gifted by the Bickley Trust to the Town Estate. In 1972 a nine hole golf course was developed at the Asfordby Road Sports Ground on thirty seven acres purchased by the Town Estate. Priors Close was generously donated to the Town Estate by the Mars Family in 1985.
The Town Estate had become the major provider of superb outdoor sports and recreation facilities in Melton Mowbray. In 1919 the purchase of the Corn Exchange meant the Town Estate was also providing an important indoor facility for social occasions.
Apart from the recreational facilities the Town Estate has also provided land for schools, the college, the swimming baths, the museum – all at no cost to the residents.
And what is the position now ? The nine hole golf course now has eighteen holes
The parks are as popular as ever, and following much effort to raise the necessary funding there is a variety of new equipment in the play areas, including some which is accessible to children in wheel chairs. The new 5-a-side football pitch with its synthetic grass was opened in June and is already proving popular. This facility will provide some useful income but will still be good value.
There is a new bridge connecting Play Close and the Leicestershire Road Sports Ground.
The popular weekly band concerts continue in the refurbished band stand. What could be pleasanter on a summer’s day than listening to a band in such attractive surroundings or perhaps wandering over to EgertonPark to watch a cricket match or sitting by the water in Priors Close watching the ducks and swans ?
The street markets are highly respected with the Bailiff ensuring a good choice of reasonable quality of goods. The town absolutely buzzes on market days with many coaches bringing tourists from some distance to see the town and of course to spend some money here.
We are highly privileged to live in a Town with such high quality leisure provision which we can all use, some is free and the remainder is reasonably priced. Some might say we are lucky but it wasn’t luck but foresight and vision over the centuries when the people of Melton Mowbray ensured that the feoffees would have the flexibility to use the Town Estate income as the feoffees saw fit. Where there was a need, there was the Town Estate to meet the need.
Let us hope the Town Estate will continue for many more centuries.
August 2008