Wessex Water was formed on 1st April 1974 following the 1973 Water Act. This act took the responsibility of water supply and sewerage from local authorities to ten regional water authorities. The areas in the South West they cover include Bath, Bristol, Dorset, Somerset, most of Wiltshire and areas of Gloucestershire and Hampshire. They therefore took on the control of water supply and sewerage from Bath City Council, earlier records relating the city's involvement in these utilities can be found in BC/7/1 and BC/7/2.
Wessex, along with the other water authorities were privatised in 1989, leading to the formation of Wessex Water Plc on 1st September 1989. They were owned by Enron from 1998 to 2001. Since 2002 they have been owned by YTL.
The primary offices for Wessex Water Services Ltd, which focuses on the domestic water supply and sewerage aspect of the business, are based in Claverton Down since 2000. Wessex Scientific Services is based in Saltford.
This collection had previously been held at Wessex Water's Historical Archive at the Water Supply Museum in Sutton Poyntz, Dorset. The records had been collected and preserved thanks to the efforts of the museum's curator, John Willows. Following the closure of the museum, its records were donated to the various local government record offices in the Wessex Water region.
The majority of items are ephemera collected by the Water Supply Museum, they can found in 0312/1 and has received a functional arrangement. The limited business records from the water authority and water company eras can be found in 0312/2 and 0312/3 respectively.
