Catalogue description Records of Hove Borough Council and its predecessors

This record is held by East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office (ESBHRO)

Details of DO
Reference: DO
Title: Records of Hove Borough Council and its predecessors
Description:

The records in DO comprise the minutes and other records of Hove Borough Council and its predecessors

 

The minutes of the pre - 1874 predecessors of Hove Borough Council, have been listed together in two groups: DO/A1 (Brunswick and Hove Commissioners) and DO/A32 (Hove parish). The parish records formerly listed as DO/A33 have been merged with DO/A32.

 

The documents have been allocated references which reflect their immediate provenance. It should be noted that the minutes of committees whose functions were transferred to ESCC on the reorganization of local government in 1974 - chiefly those relating to education, welfare and the fire brigade - have been allocated R/ references to reflect that transfer.

 

The sub-committees of most of the standing committees of the council are listed together at DO/A20.

 

Unless otherwise stated, all the minute books are indexed and signed.
Date: 1830 - 1974
Related material:

For papers derived from parliamentary work undertaken by Hill, Fitzhugh, Woolley and Griffith on behalf of the Hove Commissioners, 1873-1877, see ACC 5376/49.

 

For a day-book of legal business undertaken for the Hove Commissioners by the same firm, 1874-1878, see AMS 6389.
Held by: East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office (ESBHRO), not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Hove Borough Council
Access conditions:

Not available for consultation until 30 years after the last date of the document.
Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited by the Chief Executive and Town Clerk's Department of Hove Borough council in June and August 1982 (ACC 2851), March 1983 (ACC 4036), October 1984 (ACC 4373), May 1985 (ACC 4462), May 1987 (ACC 4834), December 1988 (ACC 5190), November 1993 (ACC 6182, 6183), and October 1996 (ACC 6926) and by Brighton and Hove Council in September and October 1997 (ACC 7572).
Publication note:

For three articles by the borough planning officer Michael Ray - 'Who were the Brunswick Town Commissioners?', 'The Victorian Boarding School in a suburb of an English seaside resort' and 'Domestic Servants in a Superior Suburb', see Sussex Archaeological Collections 127 (1989), 211-228, 129 (1991), 255-258 and 131 (1993), 172-184.
Subjects:
  • Hove, East Sussex
  • Local government
Administrative / biographical background:

The development of local government in Hove

 

The development of Brunswick Town on land formerly part of Wick Farm in Hove began in 1823. In November 1829 a meeting of the proprietors and inhabitants of Brunswick Street and Terrace decided to apply for an act of parliament to allow the area to be paved, lit and drained. The result was the Brunswick Square and Brunswick Terrace Improvement Act of 1830 (11 Geo 4 c xvi).

 

In 1851 the area of the commissioners' jurisdiction was extended by the Brunswick Square Improvement Extension Act (14 & 15 Vict c cxl); the powers of the Brunswick Commissioners ceased at the establishment of the Town of Hove Commissioners in 1874.

 

Meanwhile, in 1858 the Hove Improvement Act (21 & 22 Vict c cxx) established two further groups of commissioners.

 

The West Hove Improvement Commissioners were appointed to administer those parts of the parish not already subject to the Brunswick commissioners; the compliance of the major estates - Stanford, Vallance, Wisden and Bellingham - was however optional.

 

The act also established the Hove Police Commissioners - to be formed from six Brunswick and four West Hove commissioners - to police the whole parish, repealing those sections of the existing acts which conveyed police powers.

 

The Hove Commissioners Act of 1873 (36 & 37 Vict c xcv) amalgamated the powers of the Brunswick Square, West Hove and Hove Police Commissioners. It had been obtained in the face of an unsuccessful attempt by the Brighton Borough Council to promote an act to take over the area governed by the Hove Commissioners.

 

In 1876 Hove promoted a bill for the annexation of West Preston, as a means of opposition to the attempt of Brighton Borough Council to do the same; the town clerk was given a vote of thanks 'for the able, judicious and successful manner in which he conducted the recent parliamentary opposition to the Brighton Borough Extension Bill' on 20 April 1876.

 

The Hove Commissioners Act of 1877 (40 & 41 Vict ch clxviii) began as a bill to annex the parish of Aldrington but was passed in a more limited form.

 

In 1894 the Hove Commissioners were replaced by an Urban District Council which also encompassed the parish of Aldrington, and in 1898 the town was incorporated as a borough. In 1928 the parishes of Preston Rural and Hangleton and parts of West Blatchington and Patcham were added to the borough

 

When Steyning East Rural District Council was established in 1894, the parish of Portslade fell within its area and a Parish Council was elected (see DO/A51) In 1898 the southern part of the parish was separated and constituted as Portslade-by-Sea Urban District Council. The remainder of the parish had a Parish Meeting (see DO/A49) until 1928 when the UDC was extended to incorporate it as well. In 1974 the UDC was abolished and its area absorbed under Hove Borough Council.
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