A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



their regular labour, and if they could be persuaded to till the ground 

 upon the system which he proposed, Mr. Allen was convinced that in the 

 worst seasons they could make 2s. a week all the year round, in addition 

 to their usual earnings. The distress in Lindfield at the time was terrible, 

 and the expenditure on relief enormous. In 1831 it was estimated that 

 1,200 had been spent in one year on the support of 215 paupers, 100 of 

 whom were able-bodied. The scheme met with considerable opposition, 

 and the conservative mind of the Sussex native was slow to accept the 

 system of potato cultivation and spade husbandry which was recom- 

 mended, but in spite of this, up to 1831, considerable success had attended 

 the attempt. S17 



Somewhat similar experiments were tried in the neighbourhood of East- 

 bourne by Mrs. Gilbert, widow of the lord of the manor. She induced the 

 parish to organize experimental allotments in 1827, and herself established 

 most successful 3-acre holdings at Willingdon, upon which it was said that a 

 man could support himself and three children, as well as paying rent, rates, and 

 taxes amounting to 12 i 2s. a year, and selling dairy produce to the value of 

 10 per acre. Willingdon also had a 'self-supporting reading, writing, and 

 agricultural school ' at this time. 318 



Another expedient which had been extensively tried in order to 

 mitigate the evils of unemployment was the enforcement by the parish of the 

 labour rate ; by this scheme each ratepayer was compelled to employ a certain 

 quota of labour in proportion to his assessment to the poor rate. In 

 parishes such as Nuthurst, where the percentage of the population 

 to the acreage of agricultural land was small, the plan met with success 

 and approval, but elsewhere it proved both hard on the employer and in- 

 jurious to the employed. 319 At Crawley and elsewhere where the rate had not 

 been adopted, owing to the fact that there was not half enough agricultural 

 land to give employment to all the inhabitants, great distress was occasioned. 

 Men who had been in work in a distant parish were now sent home, owing 

 to the obligation placed upon their master to employ his own parishioners 

 whether they were equally efficient or not, consequently industrious labourers 

 were thrown out of work and had to be supported by the parish in comparative 

 idleness. 320 



A far more effectual remedy for the prevalent distress was an attempt 

 made about this time to educate public opinion. A certain number of the 

 most influential landowners in the county formed an association known as the 



317 Quarterly Rep. of the Suss. Assoc. for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes, i. The details of the 

 scheme were as follows : 



PRODUCE. OUTLAY. 



s. d. ,. d. 



\\ bushels potatoes per rod - -600 52 weeks rent at is. 6d". - - 6 10 o 



i acre of corn - -\ - -4100 Hired labour in aid - I o o 



2 pigs fattened - - - -3170 Taxes - - 10 o 



1 2 bushel seed potatoes at u. ij. - 14 o 



1470 3 oats at 3s. -90 



\ ' 



\ 93 



318 J. C. Wright, Bygone Eastbourne, 144-5. 



319 A labouring man of H urstpierpoint complained bitterly that he was assessed to the poor rate, and there- 

 fore obliged to hire labour to outset his quota, though he himself was out of work. 



510 Accts. and Papers, 1884-5, quoting the report of the Poor Law Commission of 1834. 



208 



