| Description | Along with maintaining the poor, it was a further responsibility of the Poor Law Union to collect the rates needed to pay for poor relief. In spite of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, this task remained the job of the Overseers. Birmingham differed in that it had obtained its own Act of Parliament and effectively been a Union since 1783, but these Gilbert Acts also left the Overseers to deal with the collection and assessment of poor rates, with the Guardians taking over the other responsibilities. From this volume, it appears that the Birmingham Guardians wished to re-assess the level of the poor rate, and accordingly they appointed a sub-committee made up of both Guardians and Overseers.
The first page of the volume is a letter from those surveyors carrying out the assessment to the sub-committee, and gives some background to the assessment. This is followed by several pages detailing those residences assessed, and gives their address, the names of the occupant and owner, a description of the premises, and their annual value. Sixty-two properties were selected for assessment in different parts of the town which, according to the surveyors, 'will be found extremely useful in making the general rate' (see GP B/30/2/1). Volumes GP B/30/2/2-3 contain further details relating to the properties being assessed. The volumes are not indexed. |