Journal entry – John Grey – 6 Aug 1833

Tuesday 6th August 1833



Alston Road Trust

Attended at Hexham a Meeting of the Trustees of the Alston Road, to which the report of their Committee upon the state of their funds (a copy of which I already have the honor to forward to the Board) was submitted.  An opinion was universally expressed, that it would be impossible for them to make good the monthly payments to the Commissrs of the Hospital and the annual one to the Lead Company, without abandoning the maintenance of the Roads, several of the men who should have been employed upon them, having been discontinued, in order to raise £60 P month to the Hospital, many Gates being unlet, and the toll collected & paid weekly, by persons employed for the purpose, upon which a great falling off in winter is anticipated, & lastly no reduction being possible in the expense of management, for six months to come.  In consequence of this, their prevailing opinion, I thought it right to submit to the meeting an extract from the Boards Minutes shewing the determination  of the Commissioners not to depart from the previous arrangement by which the whole sum of £1700 with interest at 3PCent, together with £112:18:0 as compensation to the tenants was to be liquidated in the course of seven years from the commencement, urging upon them the absolute necessity of having it understood that if the Commissioners should be prevailed upon so far to yield to the urgency of the case, as to suspend their claims, for the ensuing six months, the saving to be effected by a more economical establishment at the end of that period, should be applied to the speedier liquidation of the debt.  For the final resolutions of the meeting, I beg to refer to a Copy of them, which I am to be furnished with for the information of the Board.  I ought further to mention that I urged upon them the immediate settlement of Mr Coats claim for land at Lightbirks, for which he holds the Hospital liable, & to this they assented.

      I obtained today, after repeated applications, the payment of £104 from Mr Benson of Fallowfield, as part of the arrear of Rent due by his Son, for which he had become answerable, this promissory Note for the £100 which remains at two months.