The Formation of the Kidderminster Freehold Land Society

On 30^th October 1849 a public meeting was held to launch the Kidderminster Freehold Land Society at the Talbot Hotel. James Taylor the Secretary of the Birmingham Freehold Land Society, along with Akroyd and Dryke of Stourbridge, another local town where the Freehold Land Society movement had taken off were invited to speak. As we noted earlier we do not know what James Taylor said during his visit in Kidderminster but Taylor is likely to have explained the development of the movement in much the same way he explained it at other meetings.

Work on getting the Society had been going on since mid July with the main activist being Ebenezeer Guest. The meetings took place at the home of Joseph Woodhouse in Park Lane, who had agreed to act as secretary with George Turton as President. It is not clear what role Guest was intended to have but Treasurer may be a possibility. Guest, ended his honoured days as a public servant in Kidderminster as the Borough and Poor Law Rate Collector. For a large part of his life he was also a house letting agent operating from No.1 Horsefair. Given that he was a long serving public servant it is easy to assume that he was not a political person. In extracts from his diaries published anonymously before his death (at a time when he was unusually receiving a pension from the Council) he admits to voting with the Liberal minority at the 1849 by-election.

The Society started in July 1849, prior to its registration with 24 members shares at 3 shillings and 6d a quarter towards the costs of the society in addition to 1 shilling entrance money. By the time of the public meeting in October the number of shares being subscribed for had increased to 34. The impact of Taylor and others resulted in another 30 shares being taken at the meeting. Subscriptions were collected at the offices of James Batham (now 29 Church Street) fortnightly with the first subscription night on 13^th November 1949

The Society, was registered as a building society on 14^th December 1849 with the benefit of the building society and friendly society acts. To be registered as a building society required the rules of the society to be approved by Mr. Tidd Pratt the Barrister responsible for approving the rules of all Friendly Societies, Building Societies and Trade Unions. Our friend James Taylor had originally tried to register the Birmingham Freehold Society by that name but has been admonished by Tidd Pratt. "It is no matter – you must call it a Building Society for the law calls it so". One of the legal restrictions on building societies is that they were not permitted to own land.

But what was the catalyst for the Kidderminster Society taking off? In September 1849 Thomas Gisbourne standing as a Liberal was beaten by 17 votes in the Kidderminster By-election. The total electorate was tiny in comparison with the population. A coalition of Liberals and Chartists, including George Holloway, the now recognised leader of the Kidderminster Chartists had worked for the election of Gisbourne, who had been beaten at Nottingham in 1847 by Fergus O'Conner, the leader of left wing Chartism. Such a small majority could be influenced very easily by registering more voters.

The June 1850 Edition of the Freeholder carried a report on the first half year of the Kidderminster Freehold Land Society. It claimed that "without exception" that the members were Liberals. If true this suggests that Kidderminster Chartists walked into the ranks of Liberalism after the defeat of Gisbourne at Kidderminster eight months before. The Society only had 112 members but the members had contributed £218 6 shillings (£218.30). The establishment and administration of the Society had cost £20/3/10 in the first six months of which the members had paid £14/6/9, leaving a debt to the Treasurer of £5/17/1. It is clear that the Society from small beginnings was beginning to grow and prosper and would go on to purchase freehold land.

Freehold Estates Purchased by the Freehold Land Society

The first purchase of the Society was the Greenhill Estate. A meeting at which the allotments were balloted for was held at the Plough Inn or as the Freeholder put it "the large room of the Plough Inn" on the 22 January 1851. The Worcestershire Chronicle devoted a long report to the meeting and lists the original allottes.

Henry Brinton was reported in the Worcester Chronicle as saying "He was glad to see they were availing themselves of one of the oldest franchises, the 40 shillings freehold...he felt convinced that the day was not far distant when half a dozen lawyers and stewards should no longer say who should and who should not be the member for West Worcestershire." Samuel Broom, who had been involved in the formation of the Stourport Freehold Land Society , spoke of the small beginnings from one Freehold Land Society in Birmingham in 1847 to over 80 Freehold Land Societies with 30,000 members across the country and hoped that their motto in Kidderminster would be "every man his own landlord." The Worcestershire Chronicle report was sympathetic – possibly as a result of William Talbot being a Director of the newspaper. In a similar report in the Freeholder George Holloway and Thomas Peters who both spoke at the meeting are highlighted as being operatives. In the case of Holloway, he was at this time a carpet manufacturer in his own right with 14 hand looms. This suggests that the Freeholder was trying to suggest that the breadth of support was from a broader spectrum that in fact it was.

Greenhill Map

(note the location of the estate was what is now 124 – 147 Hurcott Road and ended at 14 Batham Road and 17 Turton Road)

Much detail is provided by Guest about the financing of the Greenhill estate in a strong defence of the Society in response to Mayor Bowcott’s attack on the work of the Society. This also begins to illuminate the way in which the society operated. As noted earlier the Society was prohibited by law from owning land. The land in this case was bought on the Society’s behalf by George Turton from the owners Hyde and Tymbs who received £1150. The Surveyor, Wooldridge of Stourbridge was paid 6 shillings a plot for surveying, setting out and producing a lithographed plan for each allotment which varied in size from 984 to 1262 square yards . Each plot was fenced and provided with a gate. Including paying the conveyancing charges incurred by George Turton the total cost was £1247/1/6. Including conveyancing costs for the purchase from George Turton of £1/18/6 the cost of a plot was £38/12/6.

Guest uses a lovely expression in stating that 11 of the new landowners had paid the full purchase price "eleven of them are freeholders with their writings at home". The remaining 23 plots were mortgaged to the Society for which they were charged £1/13/6, regardless of the number of plots they owned. The cost of the interest on the mortgages was 5%(or a shilling in the pound) per annum on the loan outstanding. Investing members – those were yet to be successful in the ballot for land - received interest of 8d in the pound, with the difference being held as reserves against bad debts. Of the 23 orginal allottees at least 7 had disposed of their interest within months of the purchases – all at premiums on their original purchase price. Looking at some of the names of the original purchasers it is appears that they were already of a status to own the vote.

According to the 1851 rating book two plots were rated not only for the land but also for a house. At this stage it is not possible to say with any certainty which they were but it is likely to include Greenhill Cottage (now 147 Hurcott Road).

The Society's second purchase was the Franchise Street area where a similar process was undertaken. In this case the land was purchased directly from George Talbot. According to the Worcestershire Chronicle the area purchased was nearly 13 acres in size and again laid out by Wooldridge, the Society’s Surveyor, into 51 plots along a long Street "to be called Franchise Street" and smaller streets called Hume, Holman and Talbot. A copy of the estate plan produced by Wooldridge was copied by T.D. Garscadden of Kidderminster and forms part of the Kidderminster Borough Library deposit at the County Records Office. Of these 51 plots, 34 were allotments of one plot to a shareholder holding one share, 9 shareholders had two shares each and were allotted two plots and the carpet baron Worth holding three shares were allotted three plots. A plan of this estate is available.

The third estate to be purchased by the Society was the Wood Street development which extended Wood Street to the Cemetery wall, according to the Worcestershire Chronicle on 2^nd April 1851. In this case the land was purchased from Henry Talbot at a price of about £300 an acre – the site being about two and a half acres in size. As with the Greenhill estate, there is no plan of the extent of this development but based on the information available it is possible to show the likely area of this scheme. One of the advantages given for the society buying this estate is the closeness of it to the town, in comparison with Greenhill.

It was reported in the Worcestershire Chronicle on the 9^th July 1851 that the fourth estate to be purchased was St. George's Fields off what is now Chester Road North and Offmore Road. Beyond this one brief report there is no information at the extent of the development. However, using the 1859 map of Kidderminster it is possible to make an assumption that it covered the land along Lorne Street from Lorne Street Baptist Church to Offmore Road, including Villiers Street. According to the newspaper the land had been bought by Turton and Batham, who had "kindly agreed to sell to them at cost price, having refused a good offer from another party".

What is not clear from the account that I have given so far is the extent to which the land society assisted with the development of owner occupation. The role of the freehold land society was to buy land wholesale and sell it retail. It fenced and gated each plot and in some cases paid for the laying out of streets but it did not build the houses. Much detailed work is required to develop a history of each of the developments to establish how the sites were used. Some, it is clear were used for garden land and horticulture uses, a number were developed for large detached housing, others provided for terraced housing and a few provided for chapels and public houses.

Despite the need for a substantial amount of work being required on the history of the Freehold Land Society it is clear that it had a substantial and long term impact on the housing development of the town. Guest, writing in the Shuttle at the turn of the century about the Freehold Land Society claimed that "it has grown into a large and important one ". At that time there was no organisation of that name and it is clear, in his view, that one of the two building societies, then existing was the Freehold Land Society.

Tomkinson presents the Freehold Land Society as being separate from the formation of the building society recording that "The Kidderminster Permanent Benefit Building Society was established in 1851; the first meeting was held on August 6^th at the offices of William Talbot the Solicitor of Church Street." He goes on to claim that William Talbot was the first solicitor of the Society. The evidence at the public record office does not support Tomkinson’s assertions about the genesis of the society. The Kidderminster Freeholders Permanent Benefit Building Society was formed on 5^th September 1851 at the offices of James Batham, Solicitor, Church Street with the following officers and committee members according to the rules certified by Tidd Pratt on 13^th October 1851.

President Henry Brinton Esquire

Vice President George Turton Esquire

Treasurer Stourbridge and Kidderminster Banking Co

Solicitor James Batham

Surveyor Mr Benjamin Wooldridge

Secretary Mr Ebenezeer Guest

Check Secretary Mr James Fawkes

Trustees George Butler Lea Esquire

George Turton Esquire

Gregory Barrett Esquire

Thomas Banks Esquire

Mr Robert Cumming

Committee Mr Abel Perks

Mr Jonn Eve

Mr George Holloway

Mr Daniel Johnson

Mr Thomas Peters

Mr James Condre

Mr Richard Holman

Mr Edwin Ruston

Mr Richard Hector Mcdonald

Mr James Fowler

Mr Benjamin Baylis

Mr Henry Cole

Mr James Fawkes

Few of these names are different from the Committee and officers of the Kidderminster Benefit Building Investment and Land Society registered by the Freehold land society in 1849 and it is hard to come to any other conclusion than that the newly registered society was a new vechicle to take forward the campaign of the freehold land society.