Catalogue description Cheltenham Borough Records

Paving & Lighting Commission, 1786-1852

Paving & Lighting Commissioners, The Clerk to the Commissioners, The Town Surveyor

Improvement Commission, 1852-1876

Improvement Commissioners, Committees & Town Clerk

The Mayor & Council, 1876-1974

Records relating to the Incorporation of Cheltenham, Council & Committees, Town Clerk's records, Borough Treasurer, Borough Surveyor, Medical Officer of Health & Borough Meteorologist

Records of organisations closely associated with the Council

The Cheltenham Sewer Company, The Burial Board, The Delancey Fever Hospital

Some particularly interesting discoveries have been made amongst the records. For example, a series of reports and statements concerning the alleged contravention of the Workshop Regulation Act, 1867, in a dressmaker's workshop on the Promenade. These records (CBR/B1/4/8) include statements from the female workers which describe the conditions under which they worked and give a vivid insight into the lives of a group of people not usually documented.

The final section of the catalogue covers the records of three independent organizations which were either acquired by the Council or whose functions were assumed or closely supervised by the Council. These are the records of the Cheltenham Sewer Company which the Improvement Commissioners bought in 1857 (CBR/D1), the Burial Board whose functions were assumed by the Council, (CBR/D2) and the Delancey Fever Hospital on whose Board of Trustees the Council was represented (CBR/D3).

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of Cheltenham Borough Council, the British Library and the Pilgrim Trust in funding this project. We are also indebted to Dr Steven Blake of Cheltenham Museum who has been instrumental in arranging for the deposit of many of the Borough's records in recent years and whose knowledge, enthusiasm and advice have been invaluable.

The records of the Paving & Lighting Commissioners and the Improvement Commissioners together with the early records of the Town Council were listed and probably to some extent re-arranged by W J Chapman in 1896. His notes formed the basis of the early lists of these records and the numbers he allocated follow the catalogue entries. His arrangement of the records has been preserved where appropriate but large bundles have been sub-divided for ease of use and bundles of miscellaneous papers have been split up and redistributed.

Cheltenham Borough, Gloucestershire

THESE RECORDS ARE IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR RESEARCH BUT SOME MAY NOT BE PRODUCED UNTIL REPAIRED

Most of the records generated by the predecessors of the present Council were deposited in the Record Office in 1959. This deposit included the records of their Paving & Lighting Commissioners, 1786-1852, the records of their successors, the Improvement Commissioners, 1852-76 and the pre-1945 records of their successors, the Mayor and Town Council, 1876-1974. Subsequent smaller deposits have been made over the years.

The catalogue incorporates the following accessions:

Accs. 1659, 4324, 4378, 4663, 4781, 4893, 4972, 5326, 5328, 5354, 5376, 5442, 5650, 6306, 6458, 6797, 7070, 7443, 7468, 7609, 7798, 8240, 8452

There is evidence to suggest that prior to deposit parts of the archive suffered from poor storage conditions and were exposed to damp damage. Some groups of records have been particularly affected and these include the series of Finance Committee correspondence (CBR/B2/5/4). Where necessary, fragile items have been removed from their bundles and are not available for use. It is also clear that some groups of records have been deliberately destroyed or lost. In June 1918, the Finance Committee instructed the Borough Treasurer to destroy all the old rate books, account books and papers which were not needed. In 1928 there was a serious fire in the Town Hall which destroyed some nineteenth and early twentieth century records.

(For the history and development of Cheltenham before 1876 see G Hart A History of Cheltenham (Leicester University Press, 1965) and S Blake Cheltenham: a pictorial history (Phillimore, 1996) for the period after 1876. See also Lord MacMillan Local Government Law and Administration in England and Wales (London, 1939) for information about the responsibilities of municipal boroughs).

For general interest see R Whiting Cheltenham in Old Pictures (Alan Sutton, 1986) and Cheltenham in Old Pictures: a second selection (Alan Sutton, 1988). For information about the history and naming of streets see J Hodsdon An Historical Gazetteer of Cheltenham (BGAS, 1997)

• Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
• Local government

Local government in Cheltenham, 1786-1974

The Paving & Lighting Commissioners were appointed under the provisions of the Paving & Lighting Act, 1786 (26 & 27 Geo. III cap. 116). Their primary responsibility was to assess the paving and lighting rate, arrange for its collection and from it maintain and improve the roads in the town and provide adequate street lighting. The Commissioners worked with the parish Vestry to improve the amenities of the town (See also CBR/P78).

The Commissioners' responsibilities were extended during the period of their jurisdiction. Controls on the standards of new building, mainly to reduce the risk of fires, were introduced in 1812 and the series of building certificates survive from 1824 (CBR/A3/5/2/1-19). In response to public demand, the Commissioners set up a night watch which by the mid 1820s had developed into a police force under the supervision of the Surveyor. Despite opposition from the Commissioners and local people this force was disbanded in 1840 under the provisions of the County Police Act, 1839 (2 & 3 Vict. cap. 93) and replaced by the county constabulary under the supervision of the Quarter Sessions. (See H Thomas The History of the Gloucestershire Constabulary, 1839-95 (Alan Sutton, 1987) for more detailed information.

The Commissioners' responsibility for the roads included cleaning the streets and this required a reliable supply of water. By 1824 it was clear that the Commissioners were unable to meet the demand for water both for cleaning the streets and supplying the growing domestic market. A privately owned company was set up under the provisions of the Cheltenham Water Act, 1824 (5 Geo. IV cap. 132) to take over responsibility for the supply of water and although the Commissioners were not responsible for the water supply after 1824, they worked closely with the Water Company to ensure that the supply was adequate for the needs of the town.

The Commissioners were also responsible for providing street lighting and gas rather than oil was used to fuel the street lamps from 1818. Cheltenham was one of the first places in Gloucestershire to use gas for this but the Commissioners were never responsible for the supply of gas itself. This was provided by the privately owned Cheltenham Gas Light & Coke Company but the Commissioners had the right to decide where individual lamps were placed within the town and they maintained a strict control over the quality and price of the gas supplied.

The Commissioners also set bye-laws to regulate the behaviour of the inhabitants of the town and dealt with complaints about nuisances. In common law a nuisance was defined as an action likely to cause offence to the public; by the mid-nineteenth century it usually related to public health and sanitation.

The unelected Paving & Lighting Commissioners were replaced by the Improvement Commissioners under the provisions of the Improvement Act, 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. cap. 1). These Commissioners were elected by the ratepayers and were responsible for laying the foundations of the committee system which survives to-day. The Improvement Commissioners inherited all the responsibilities of their predecessors.

By the 1870s there was a move to obtain a Charter of Incorporation and replace the Improvement Commissioners with a more democratically elected Town Council led by the Mayor who could represent Cheltenham on an equal footing with the mayors of other incorporated boroughs. The Charter of Incorporation was granted in April 1876 despite some vigorous opposition and the Town Council elected under its terms was responsible for the development of Cheltenham until it was replaced under the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1972 (20 & 21 Eliz. II cap. 70).

Cheltenham was not created a County Borough under the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. cap. 41) but remained a Municipal Borough and this restricted the powers of the Council. From 1890, the Council sought to extend its boundaries to include parts of Charlton Kings, Leckhampton, Prestbury, Badgeworth and Up Hatherley. Between 1945 and 1959 it petitioned unsuccessfully to change its status to become a County Borough.

The Council was responsible for maintaining registers of electors and implementing legislation relating to local elections. It levied and collected the Borough Rate and was empowered to own land and property and to raise loans using its property and the rates as security.

As mentioned above by 1876 both the water supply and the gas supply were being provided by privately owned companies. The Council took over the water supply in 1878 when it bought the Water Company. It built its own reservoir at Dowdeswell which opened in 1886. The Cheltenham Gas Light & Coke Company continued to supply gas for street lighting and domestic use but the Council built its own electricity generating station which opened in 1895 and generated power for both street lighting and domestic use. (For detailed information about the introduction of electricity see R Acock Electricity Comes to Cheltenham (Glenside Books, 1995)). The Council opted to set up a library service in 1883 and was responsible for the provision of education from 1876, first through the School Attendance Committee and then, from 1903, through the Education Committee.

The Council had responsibility for highways, public health and housing, the suppression of nuisances and setting of bye-laws, the control of advertising (from 1907) and maternity and child welfare (from 1915). It was also responsible for the implementation of national legislation including diseases in animals, 1876-1903 and national registration, 1940-41.

Cheltenham never had its own Quarter Sessions. An important series of Petty Sessions records have survived for the Cheltenham district from 1834 (PS/CH) and these include settlement examinations, 1815-52 (see I E Gray & A T Gaydon Gloucestershire Quarter Sessions Archives, 1660-1889 (Gloucester, 1958) for more detailed information).

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