 payment had been made for the last ten years. (fn. 358) Wicken had certainly ceased to do suit to the honor by the 1830s. (fn. 359)
In the late 16th century and early 17th the Spencers were holding two courts a year for the combined manor of Wick Dive and Wick Hamon, at which transfers of freehold land were recorded, orders made for the management of the common fields, and various officers appointed, including two constables, presumably one for each of the medieval townships. There is no sign of copyhold tenure. (fn. 360) Much the same picture emerges from rolls of 1661 and 1699-1707 for what was then simply called the manor of Wicken. (fn. 361) Charles Hosier may have given up holding courts as soon as he acquired the lordship, since by the 1740s (ten years before inclosure would have made the court largely redundant) the (single) constable was clearly an official of the vestry, rather than the manor. (fn. 362)
The Vestry and Parish Council.
Overseers' accounts from 1773 to 1820 indicate that the poor of the parish were being maintained entirely by out relief, although at the beginning of that period a small amount was received each year from the sale of lace, presumably made by some of the paupers. (fn. 363) The highways were maintained by a combination of statute duty and the employment of contractors. (fn. 364)
Wicken was included in Potterspury poor law union after 1834 but neither the guardians, nor after 1894 the rural district council, were much concerned with the affairs of what remained very much an estate village. Lord Penrhyn installed piped water in 1896-7 but Wicken lacked a waterborne sewerage system until well into the 20th century. (fn. 365) Mains electricity reached the village in 1930 (fn. 366) and by 1954 the parish council, a seven-member body established in 1894, had adopted the Lighting & Watching Act. (fn. 367) In 1948 Towcester R.D.C., to which Wicken was transferred in 1935 when Potterspury R.D.C. was abolished, completed the first group of council houses in the parish and took over (as