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73
The Vestry will upon completion of the agreement have all the rights
of a freeholder over the land, merely indemnifying Mrs Murdoch
against the covenants agreed to between the Vestry and the
Sevenoaks Estate Company as to sidings and stream diversion
Tf the Vestry should desire at any time to take up the conveyance they
can by six months' notice pay off the balance of the consideration
money, with interest to the expiration of the notice
I advise the Vestry therefore to seal the agreement
I may say that the tenancy of the cottage and land at £20 per annum
will expire at Michaelmas next, from which date I have secured
another tenant at £40 per annum
The posts attending this purchase amounted to £83 558 0d
Provision was made in the estimates for 1896-7 for extending
siding on the newly-acquired land and erecting a furnace
Longfield Depot—The boiler of the steam crane at this Depot,
together with the steam pipes, was protected by a covering of fossil
meal composition two inches thick in November 1895, the work
being carried out by Messrs Haacke & Co for the sum of £6 108
On the 19th February 1896 the Vestry adopted the following
report submitted by the Committee :—
Your Committeee have considered the question of water supply, repairs
and ventilations required to be canned out to the workmen's cottages
under the viaduct at Longfield Depot, and they have arrived at the
conclusion that it would be wiser to acquire the piece of land alongside
the railway at this Depot whereon workmen's cottages can be
erected rather than spend money in repairing the old cottages, with
the prospect of their being condemned as unfit for dwellings in the
near future by the Sanitary Authority for the district
Your Committee have ascertained that the piece of land in question can
be purchased for £'200, which they consider is very reasonable ; and
under all the circumstances they have no hesitation in advising the
Vestry to acquire the same, so that next year, when the estimates are
under consideration, provision can be made for placing workmen's
cottages thereon
Your Committee therefore recommend : —
That the triangular piece of freehold land, measuring la Ir 2p,
alongside the railway at Longfield Depot as shown on plan
submitted, be purchased for £200 for the erection of workmen's
cottages
Three cottages or huts, standing on the ground and let for 10s
per week, were included in this purchase, which was completed from
the 25th March 1896, the costs amounting to £6 2s 6d