| Description | The creation in 1836 of the King's Norton Union encompassed the parishes of King's Norton, Northfield, Harborne and Edgbaston. However, when in 1838 Birmingham was granted its charter, becoming a metropolitan borough, the parliamentary borough boundaries were taken as those for the new municipality. These included Edgbaston, even though the churchwardens and select vestry of the parish asked that they should be left out of the borough. Thus there was a split between the responsibilities of the parish, with King's Norton Union managing the Poor Law duties, and the remaining duties lying under the control of the borough (after 1889, the city) council.
This arrangement continued until 1889 when, in the wake of the 1887 Local Government (Boundaries) Act, Birmingham Council asked for a Local Government Board enquiry, with a view to extending the city's boundaries and authority. This included taking over the management of Edgbaston's poor law duties, a move vigorously opposed by the King's Norton Guardians. In response to it, the Guardians set up their own Committee to follow the Local Government Board's enquiry, to 'take all such steps as may be necessary with the view to preventing a transfer of the parish of Edgbaston from this Union to the Parish of Birmingham' (see GP KN/2/9/1). The volume of minutes covers the years 1889 and 1894, when in light of the opposition from King's Norton and other affected parishes, the plan was put to one side. King's Norton's poor law responsibilities did not come under the control of Birmingham council until 1912, following the Greater Birmingham Act.
The volume contains information on those members of the Committee present at each meeting, the proposed boundary changes, and the Committee's resolutions regarding them. The minutes are brief, and only cover six meetings from the period. However, they do shed light on the Board of Guardians minutes for the same period (see GP KN/2/1/26-32), which deal with the setting up of the committee. The volume is not indexed. |