Below is an exert from 'Roade', in A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 5, the Hundred of Cleley, ed. Philip Riden and Charles Insley , pp. 345-374. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/northants/vol5/pp345-374 [accessed 19 February 2023].

Feoffees' Charity.

An estate in Roade conveyed to nine feoffees in 1633 included in part some of the woodland acquired by the Crown from Henry Cartwright in 1543. The feoffees also owned a cottage in Roade called the Town's House and land in Mill Field and West Well Field, which in 1695 was demised to John Stoakes of Roade for 21 years. A new 21-year lease was granted in 1716 on the same terms. In 1744 the estate was said to consist of the Town's House, two little tenements 'divided forth of the same cottage', and 4 a. in the open fields. In 1720 the income from the estate was reserved as a stock to help inhabitants who fell into accidental misfortune; in the early 19th century, immediately prior to inclosure, the money was applied to various 'public uses of the town'; after inclosure it was used to buy coal for the poor. From at least the 1740s the income was being disbursed in doles. The estate was let for £3 7s. a year in that period, rising to £4 by 1801, when some of the money was being used to buy coal and also to subscribe to Northampton Infirmary. New feoffees were appointed in 1772 and 1792.

At inclosure in 1819 the feoffees received an allotment of 10 a. in the former open fields at the Plain, near the Blisworth road, adjoining the allotment awarded to Chivall's Charity, and thereafter the two trusts appear to have been managed on similar lines. Immediately after inclosure, William Amos of Roade took 21-year leases of both charities' land at the Plain, giving the feoffees an income of £12 a year. The four cottages were let for 10s. each. Amos surrendered his leases in about 1830, whereupon the land belonging to both trusts was let to the poor in allotments of between a rood and half an acre, according to the size of the tenants' families, an arrangement that brought in about £6 a year for the feoffees in the 1830s.

In 1839 the feoffees converted a large room at the Town's House into three tenements, so that in the 1840s between six and eight tenants were paying between 8s. and £1 a year each. In 1862 the premises were described as a nest of houses called Poverty Yard. The allotments were let to some 25 tenants at 4d. per pole ; in 1853 the feoffees agreed to give two prizes of 6s. 8d. and 3s. 4d. for the best kept plots. Their total annual income in this period was between £25 and £30, which, after expenses, was disbursed in doles of a few shillings each to about a hundred paupers. The feoffees were still subscribing a guinea a year to Northampton Infirmary in 1880. In the 1860s the number of cottage tenants was reduced from six to five; from 1870 the building was divided into only four tenements.

In 1883 the Charity Commissioners sought unsuccessfully to merge Roade's two charities, although new schemes were made for both, under which their estates were vested in the Official Trustee. The feoffees' income was unaffected and in the early 1890s they were still disbursing between 2s. and 10s. a year to over eighty people. In 1927 the feoffees rebuilt the four cottages, although by 1940 they were in need of structural repair. The estate still included the cottages and 10 a. land in 1965.

Chivall's Charity.

In 1708 Catherine Chivall of Ashton, the relict of John Chivall, surveyor, and their only daughter and heiress Elizabeth, conveyed to two trustees 14 a. of land in the open fields of Roade, the income to be disbursed annually to the poor of Roade, as the minister, churchwardens and overseers should determine, the first payment to be made on the Christmas Day following the death of either Catherine or Elizabeth, whichever occurred later. The charity had been established by the 1720s, when upwards of £3 was distributed each year.

The administration of the charity later passed directly to the minister, churchwardens and overseers, to whom an allotment of just under 12 a. was made at inclosure in 1819,alongside that made to the Feoffees' Charity, and both parcels were leased in 1817 to a local farmer. When he surrendered in about 1830, the land was divided into allotments let to the poor, an arrangement continued by both sets of trustees for the rest of the 19th century and beyond. Before inclosure, the income from Chivall's Charity was used to buy coal for the poor; after the creation of the allotments the surplus was given out in cash on Christmas morning.

In 1883 the Charity Commissioners, having failed to combine the two trusts, made a scheme for the Chivall Charity and vested the land in the Official Trustee. In 1900 the vicar of Roade became a trustee ex officio and was to act with four representative trustees appointed by the parish council. The application of the charity's income, about £20 a year in the 1870s and £12 in the 1890s, was unaffected.

The two trusts were amalgamated in 1956 as Roade Feoffee and Chivall Charities and remained on the register at the time of writing with their object the general benefit of the poor of the parish.