The map was duly lithographed by Messrs Shaw & Son on a 6-chain scale and the Reference Book printed for distribution to all interested parties. Both were adopted formally for Tithe Apportionment, with the copyright being vested in the Hailsham Board of Guardians, and copies of both may be consulted in the East Sussex Records Office.

Before the end of 1840 the Vestry had agreed to the Guardians selling four parish properties in Chiddingly for funding the new workhouse and these were auctioned by Wenham & Son on November 25^th, 1841, after the Vestry had paid for fifty advertising handbills and inserted notices in The Agricultural Express and the Sussex Weekly Advertiser. During 1844, the Vestry Minutes refer to other sales and lettings, to one of which the witness was Matthew Henry Lower, now a young man of 22; but as late as 1861 the parish still owned at least one house at Whitesmith, for in that year it was leased to Richard Lower. Even at the height of “free enterprise” in the 19^th century, council housing died hard!

By then, though, the Vestry had long since shed its responsibilities in relation to administering the Poor Law and this is reflected in the length of its Minutes. The entries from February 1840 to March 1862 (265 months) occupy only the same number of pages in Richard Lower’s second Minute Book as those for the 101 months from May 1831 to October 1839. The entries in his first book for the years before 1831 are even longer and more detailed. Perhaps Richard as the Vestry Clerk and the farmers who determined its policies welcomed the loss of the Poor Law as a subject for parish argument – but it must have made Vestry meetings considerably less interesting!