Large expenditures or small, all cost money that was raised by levying a Poor Rate on all ratepayers and, by April 1833 - and possibly long before that - some ratepayers had come to the conclusion that they were paying more than their fair share. At its meeting on April 19^th, the Vestry was presented with a demand that ways be sought of Equalizing The Poor Rate. It came to no firm conclusion at once but adjourned discussion until May 17^th.

Who presented the demand is not known but undoubtedly it represented a widely held view, for the matter was to occupy the Vestry’s full attention for the next four months and – as matters turned out – not be resolved for another six years. The nominal rentable values on which rates were levied were undoubtedly out-of-date; they had existed unchanged for something like two centuries. But whatever the individual rentals, the monies to be raised for the Poor Law and Highways Rates would be the same. It was just that, if the parish were revalued, some ratepayers would pay less and others more. Probably most men judged that they would end up among the former; or perhaps it was the rich farmers, who had the most political power in the parish, who thought they were being overcharged; but for whatever reason, the Vestry took the matter very seriously.

At its meeting on May 17^th, called specifically to discuss Equalizing The Rate, the Vestry decided to require from every occupier in the parish a map or other authentication of his holdings, as a first step towards deciding what his rental should be, and it ordered the preparation of a handbill to be distributed to every occupier explaining what requirement was necessary, with a further requirement that returns of maps or authentication were to be made to Richard Lower, Vestry Clerk, on or before June 10^th, 1833.

Most of the returns must have come in on time – there is no record of omissions – because on July 11^th the Vestry passed an Equalizing The Rate Plan, whose complexities suggest that someone with a fairly agile brain – Richard Lower? – had at least helped in its drafting. The Plan provided first for the appointment of a Committee consisting of Edward Dray, James Dunk, Thomas Guy, Samuel Funnell, William Guy, Robert Reeves and William Holman. It will be noted that the Committee included at least three of the parish’s largest farmers, whilst three reserves, appointed in advance against contingencies, were all farmers: Walter Funnell, Richard Pelling and John Weston. The task of this Committee was to carry through the revaluation of all properties in the parish.