Who owns the Parish Pump?

Courier Countryside Column for 24^th May

So who exactly owns the Parish Pump?

It’s extraordinary how you can live in a village for years and still have little idea of how it actually works.  You may know there is a village shop and a pub or two.  But say you’re watching cricket on the green and glance at the church clock to see if it’s still ten-to-three, do you ever think who owns the green?  Or who pays for repairs to the clock?

For most people this may not much matter. The green has always been there and will probably go on being there.  But suddenly for me it’s of consuming interest.  My village has just embarked on a Parish Plan. This is a government backed initiative to enable local people to determine how they would like their community to develop over the next ten years and more. The steering committee thought a good first step would be to find out what ‘assets’ the village had, who owns them and who runs them.  And then they handed the task to me.

Some things are clear.  The main village hall is owned and run by a charity whose sole trustee is the Parish Council.  But there are two other smaller community halls. One is owned by the church even though it was built by public subscription.  But I don’t know whether it’s run by the parochial church council or another committee. The other hall or pavilion is even more of a mystery.  And dotted around the village are various small parcels of land whose title is obscure.  Who, for instance, owns the little triangle on which the war memorial sits? Or the land housing the two parish pumps?

Does the cricket club pay rent to use the village green and if so to whom? I believe there is a separate committee that ‘runs’ the green, even though the Parish Council is responsible for maintenance.

So far we’ve discovered twenty separate charities or charitable trusts operating within the parish, mostly for the direct benefit of villagers.  And that doesn’t include the twenty-five different clubs or organisations you could join.  Most are run by committees meaning there could easily be two hundred and fifty people serving on them.  That’s getting on for 20% of the village population directly involved in some aspect of running it.

Now I have to discover who owns the church clock. I understand it may be the village not the church.  But I’ve no idea why.