At its meeting in May 1824, the Chiddingly Vestry reverted to a plan it first tried two years earlier as a way of finding work for the able-bodied unemployed and of keeping them out of mischief without imposing too heavy a burden on the Poor Rate: it traded them off to farmers in exchange for not paying their contribution to the Poor Rate. The resolution read:” Unemployed labourers shall be billetted on all who shall have their regular quota in employ, i.e. at the Rate of one man to every £25 of his Rental” This meant, of course, that farmers got workmen cheaply, costing nothing beyond their board and keep, but whether or not the labourers worked well is another matter. Indeed, reports that agricultural productivity in Sussex declined during this period suggests that they did not.

A slightly different trading off of paupers occurred three years later when the Vestry reached an agreement with Thomas Bray " that the people out of employ shall be employ’d by him in levelling the ground in The Dicker and Tho. Bray is to pay two loads of Household Faggots for the same delivered at the poorhouse” which does not seem to have been an excessive price to pay for labour.

The parish Poor House had acquired a new Governor at the end of 1824: William Thorpe. With his wife assisting him in management, he was to receive 6s. per week for each pauper lodged on condition that he and his wife ate regularly with the paupers in order to discourage waste. He was also to pay the parish 2s. a week “for each of his two children and in proportion for others for board etc.” and his house – which he rented from Thomas Guy – and his stock were to be taken as security for his contract. For this security, whilst it was in the parish’s hands, he was to receive 5% per annum interest.

At the end of Richard Lower’s first year in office, the Overseers reported a balance in hand on the Poor Rate account of £71. 15. 7½d. In the following year he probably helped to negotiate the agreement with the local millers for them “to supply flour of household quality as 1s. per bushell under the regular market price at Lewes Market,” the millers to be paid quarterly but “to deliver in required rotation every fortnight to the Poor House according to the quantity required.” This must have saved the parish money, but it looks as if the parish lost out in the puzzling matter of “William Savage’s house at Thunder Hill.” In March 1826 the parish bought this property from Thomas Guy of Chiddingly Place for £100 payable at £5 per annum at 5%; in December 1827, Thomas Day Esquire bought “William Savage’s house” from the parish for £70. Somehow or other the parish lost £20 (which, remember, needs to be multiplied by 50 to give a rough modern equivalent.) Was this due to mismanagement by Richard Lower, the Assistant Overseer, since when the parish acquired property it was always for the purpose of housing paupers? Or had two of the wealthy farmers manoeuvred a profitable deal between themselves at the parish’s expense. And why on March 11^th, 1827, did Richard Lower suddenly give a fortnight’s notice of resignation from his post?