e 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 a gift) the village water supply from the Society of Merchant Venturers. (fn. 368) The following year the council let a contract for ten more houses, although large-scale development remained impossible until the water supply was improved. (fn. 369) More council houses were built in the mid 1950s after this had been done and a sewerage scheme installed. (fn. 370)
Apart from pressing for more local authority housing, the parish council had few major issues to deal with in the 1950s and early 1960s, beyond protesting at the naming of streets and the erection of speed limit signs at the entrance to the village, both of which were felt to be detrimental to the character of the place; (fn. 371) and ensuring that Wicken kept up its strong record in Northamptonshire's Tidest Village competition, in which it won a pink chestnut tree for the churchyard in 1960. (fn. 372) The council objected without success to the closure of the school in 1962. (fn. 373)
The council first became alarmed at the prospect of new housing