September Lymm Local Board Meeting Report
Northwich Guardian, 12th September, 1877, p.3, c.5

Extracts from the Press Report

The Rushbearing Dispute
The Chairman read the minutes of the last monthly meeting... ...as will be remembered a resolution was passed...
"That the surveyor be instructed not to allow any person at the coming Rushbearing, to erect any booth, stall, or standing, or cause any other obstruction on any part of the highway in or around Lymm village, or to take any tolls from any person so causing, or attempting to cause any obstruction on the Highways"
Mr Evans said it seemed to him that the notice issued by the board was at variance with the instructions given to the surveyor.
Mr Robson said he supported that resolution... ...and he knew of no instructions antagonistic(?) to it having been given to the Surveyor.

The Clerk said that as a matter of law he had looked into the question as to whether the space round the cross was a highway or not, and was of opinion that the whole of it was a highway, and he grounded that opinion upon the fact that the Board had hitherto repaired it.
Mr Evans said that the notice was at variance with the byelaw
Mr Holt's opinion was that the carrying out of the notice was to be left to the discretion of the Surveyor
The Clerk said he new of no verbal instructions having been given to the Surveyor - no instructions, indeed, beyond the resolution passed.
                                ----[Discussion continued on the minutes, which were Passed]----

Mr Evans then moved that the resolution in the minutes just confirmed, respecting prohibiting erection of stalls &c, at rushbearings be rescinded.
Mr Holt seconded the motion.
The Clerk...had looked carefully into the matter and the law as at present [and] decided - though at the present the legal decision of to-day might be reversed on appeal - was, a fair held held for public convenience could not be prohibited; but a fair held for mere pleasure might be prohibited.
     --- Discussion on whether rushbearing a pleasure or a fair of convenience and whether the Cross is highway or not ---
Mr Evans... [asked] ... whether it was highway or not
The Clerk said if they put the matter before him pro forma and could give him information as to the occupation of the land for the last 20 years, he should then be able to give them a more positive opinion. He had heard of cases in which morris-dancers had yearly gone to a cross and claimed so many feet of land; but he knew on no such usage in Lymm.

The conversation then turned upon the question of the toll taken, in the course of which the Clerk reiterated his remark... ...that the Surveyor had no right to take tolls, and that he (the Clerk) could not conceive why he had done so.
He had handed to the Surveyor the notice, but he could not give him the brains. 
The question was raised... ..in case of any erections in future being put up.
The Clerk said his advice was that the Surveyor should knock them down, and leave the persons affected to bring their actions against the Board, and that would raise the question in its simplest form.
Mr Brown said perhaps the best was would be, if they lived to another rushbearing season, for the Board to take no action in the matter.

The chairman suggested to Mr Evans that he should withdraw his motion
Mr Brown thought that if the motion was carried there would appear to be great inconsistency in the action of the Board.
Mr Robson said that they could not go back to their old position. The inconsistency was a matter of history.
Mr Cameron did not think that there had been inconsistency.
Mr. Holt expressed his willingness as seconder of the resolution to withdraw, and the motion was consequently withdrawn.

The Press Report

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Last updated 13 April 2020