344 Bradford-on-Avon. [ Charities. 
taken the 2nd day of June, 1702, of all the lands belonging to the 
old Alms-house, situate in the Parish of Bradford, in the county 
of Wilts.” The land belonging to the Alms-house is described as 
twelve acres and a half, lying dispersedly in different parts of the 
Parish. The rent arising therefrom, together with an annual pay- 
ment of 38s. due from the Lord of the Manor, constituted the in- 
come of the Charity. : 
The Charity Commissioners were further informed that there 
was in existence a lease, by which, about the year 1760, Mr. Pow- 
lett Wright, as Lord of the Manor of Bradford, demised the lands 
above described for the benefit of the Alms-house. The lands were 
also said to be let at rack-rent, producing either £8, or (as was 
thought more probable) £12 a year. 
With reference to the buildings the Charity Commissioners say,— 
‘“‘The almshouses occupy a triangle, standing between two roads and the canal 
from Bradford to Bath. They consist of three tenements, of one floor each, and 
are all under one roof; they are low in the walls, and altogether in bad condi- 
tion. Each of the three almswomen occupy one tenement.” 
The road, in fact, which was made at the time of the formation 
of the Kennet and Avon Canal at a considerable higher level than 
the former one, reaches on the east side of the buildings, above the 
level of the original window-sills. This necessarily makes all the 
tenements extremely damp. It is to be regretted that as the 
Kennet and Avon Canal Company, in making their approaches, so 
seriously impaired the Alms-houses as places of residence, the more 
so, as a wall is built within a few yards of their entrances, they 
were not required by the erection of other cottages to secure to 
the poor alms-women the comforts they had previously enjoyed. 
With regard to the portion of Alms-house property occupied by 
the Kennet and Avon Canal Company, to which we have just made 
a passing reference, the Commissioners say ;— 
o 
“The Canal Company by a clause in their Act of Parliament (84 Geo. III.) 
were together with the parties interested, authorized to sell and fix the rent of 
the land acquired by the Act. In this case an annual rent was fixed for so 
much of the almshouse property as was required, and a deed was prepared sta- 
ting the nature of the agreements between the Canal Company and the Charity. 
This deed, Mr. Clutterbuck, then Steward of the Lord of the Manor, never 
