Burton Latimer - Agriculture:

John Meads - 2015 - from the Northampton Mercury 13 January 1933

Alleged Destruction By Rats


Percy Herbert in WW1 Alice started keeping an allotment during his absence	Alice and Percy Herbert in later years when they were farming Wold Lodge	Councillor A.C. Harris, UDC chairman when the claim was discussed

ASTONISHED COUNCIL
----------------------

WOMAN’S CLAIM FOR LOSS OF FOWLS

------------------------

ALLEGED DESTRUCTION BY RATS

To the loss of eggs and fowls for the last two years:
211 Hens at 2/6	£26 12 6
17 Ducks at 2/6	£2 2 6
Eggs valued at 2/- daily	£73 0 0
	£101 15 0
This claim is for loss by rats from the tip

This bill, from Mrs. P.E. Herbert, 47, Church-street, Burton Latimer, astonished the Urban Council at Tuesday’s meeting.

It was read in all seriousness by the clerk.

The Chairman promptly asked: Will someone propose we settle the claim? (Laughter.)

Mr. A.G. Miller: Are we doing anything to exterminate the rats there?

A member: There are very few there.

It was decided to inform the woman that the Council accepted no liability in the matter.

It was pointed out that in her computation Mrs. Herbert had reckoned wrongly in the item relating to the hens. In the egg item, too, she had overlooked the fact that last year was a leap year!

Interviewed by a “Mercury and Herald” reporter after the meeting, Mrs. Herbert said she had a poultry run on an allotment adjoining the rubbish tip and only a stretch of wire-netting separated them.

“I have been losing poultry like this for years,” she said, “but I only claimed for the last two years because matters got much worse.”

Mrs. Herbert discussed her claim somewhat heatedly. “I have got to find my bread and butter,” she said. “I started keeping poultry when my husband went to the war. I don’t know what the Council will do with my bill. I have charged nothing like what the poultry is actually worth.”