Catalogue description ARCHIVE OF BRITISH GAS PLC

BRG/1 Brighton, Hove and Worthing Gas Company Limited; 1818-1949

BRG/2 Crowborough Gas Company Limited; 1898-1929

BRG/3 Eastbourne Gas Company Limited; 1852-1956

BRG/4 Hailsham Gas Company Limited; 1853-1909

BRG/5 Heathfield Gas Company Limited; 1929-1949

BRG/6 Hastings Gas Company Limited; 1854-1949

BRG/7 Lewes Gas Company Limited; 1822-1949

BRG/8 Mayfield Gas Company Limited; 1886-1901

BRG/9 Newhaven Gas and Coke Company Limited; 1880-1949

BRG/10 Rye Gas and Coke Company Limited; 1873-1949

BRG/11 Seaford Gas Company Limited; 1930-1934

BRG/12 Wadhurst and District Gas and Coke Company Limited; 1925-1948

Records listed below are of former constituent companies of the South Eastern Gas Board based at Croydon. The records were dispersed between the London Metropolitan Archives, and the Kent, Surrey, East and West Sussex record offices

For deposited accounts of public utility companies, 1859-1888, see QDT/3/EW39-68 and for 1889-1972, see C/C 109/1-78; for deposited provisional and special orders, 1921-1960, see C/C 114/1-70

The records of the South Eastern Gas Board and predecessors held at the National Gas Archive, BG plc, Common Lane, Partington, Manchester M31 4BR - copy of list available in Search Room

Records are often for Consultation unless otherwise indicated

Records deposited 3 Mar 1977 (ACC/2060)

• East Sussex
• Gas industry

The Board of Trade's responsibilities under the various Gas Acts from 1847 onwards were performed by the Commercial Department until 1863, then by the Railway Department until 1901, by the Harbour Department until 1918 and subsequently by the Industrial Departments. Relating originally only to private undertakings, these responsibilities later included certain powers over local authority gas undertakings after these had been transferred from the Ministry of Health in 1920

After the outbreak of war in 1939 steps were taken to concentrate in one department all government responsibilities for sources of energy. The Board of Trade already administered government controls over the gas industry and in September 1941 it took over from the Ministry of War Transport those relating to electricity. On 11 June 1942 an Order in Council transferred all functions relating to the fuel and power industries to a new Ministry of Fuel and Power. The establishment of the ministry and this transfer of functions was made permanent by the Ministry of Fuel and Power Act 1945

Although the minister was formally charged under the 1945 Act with a general duty of co-ordinating the development of fuel and power sources in Great Britain, little positive planning took place. Under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, the Electricity Act, 1947 and the Gas Act 1948, the ministry acquired new responsibilities which largely involved advising and interpreting government policy to the newly created boards and other allied fuel and power industries. The minister became responsible for the appointment and determination of tenure of the boards of the nationalised industries, was empowered to control capital investment programmes and generally to supervise schemes of research and development. These functions were exercised partly through largely autonomous divisions within the ministry and partly by virtue of its statutory powers in relation to the National Coal Board, the Electricity Council, the Central Electricity Generating Board and the area electricity boards, the Gas Council and area gas boards

A separate Gas Division was created in 1948 to exercise the ministry's functions under the Gas Act 1948, which adopted the recommendations of the report of the Committee of Enquiry on the Gas Industry (the Heyworth Committee). This statute nationalised the gas industry and created twelve area gas boards and a Gas Council charged with the exercise of functions relating to the supply of gas. The Gas Division of the Ministry of Fuel and Power was in liaison with both the council and the area boards over a variety of matters relating to the administration of government policy

The South Eastern Gas Board (SEGB) was one of the 12 Area Gas Boards established by the terms of the 1948 Gas Act and it came into existence on 7 January 1949. It covered the whole of the counties of Kent, Surrey and Sussex. A total of 61 undertakings vested in the SEGB, five of which were local authority undertakings, together with two holding companies (Associated Gas and Water Undertakings Limited and the South Eastern Gas Corporation Limited)

The British Gas Corporation was formed on 1 January 1973 under the terms of the 1972 Gas Act. Individual Gas Boards were dissolved and the SEGB became the south Eastern Region of the Corporation. The former management committees were replaced

After privatisation, in 1986, SEGas continued as a Region until 1994 when all the regions were abolished and British Gas plc reorganised on a functional basis