Minutes and related records of Bath Borough/City Council (up to 1974)

Reference Number
BC/2/1
Level of Description
Section
Title
Minutes and related records of Bath Borough/City Council (up to 1974)
Date
1631-1974
Extent
Extent: c.75 linear metres
Description
The content of the minutes varies greatly over time, and reflect the powers, responsibilities and interests of the Council at any given period. Until the early nineteenth century, the main concern of the council was with the property it administered, and the minutes of the meetings of the full Council reflect this. Matters such as public health and public safety were dealt with not by the Council but by Improvement Commissioners until the mid nineteenth century, when their powers were transferred to the Council under the 1851 Bath Act. From this point on, the work of the council expanded as it assumed responsibility not only for more aspects of public health but for education and housing from the late nineteenth century, and for poor relief and town planning in the 1930s. The council also developed municipal undertakings: it had provided a water supply to a limited part of the city since the sixteenth century, but from the mid-nineteenth century this was expanded to the whole city; and it generated and supplied electricity from the 1890s.

Before 1835, committees consisting of small groups of councillors were set up by the Council to investigate specific matters; these committees reported back to the full council. After 1835, in parallel with the growth in its functions, the Council developed a permanent committee structure, with different committees responsible for different aspects of the Council's work. Some committees were statutory - they had to be established by law; examples are the Watch Committee, which was made compulsory by the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act, and the Children's Committee, which was made compulsory by the Children Act of 1948. Other committees were set up because they provided an effective way of carrying out the Council's responsibilities; many existed continuously for decades, sometimes with a change of name or slight change of functions, while others were more short-lived. From time to time, special committees were set up to deal with specific matters; these usually existed for only a limited period. As the work of the Council became more complex, the committees set up sub-committees to deal with specific aspects of their work. The sub-committees reported to the parent committees, which in turn reported to the meetings of the full council.

There are two different sets of minutes:
- minutes of the full Council and of its committees, initially in manuscript, later printed, which were signed by the mayor or the relevant committee chairman. These cover the period 1631-1974 and provide the definitive record of the actions and transactions of the Council. Access to a small number of these minutes is restricted in accordance with UK Data Protection Law
- printed minutes of the meetings of the full Council and the committees, produced for the public. The printed minutes are less detailed than the signed minutes; in some cases there is very little difference, but in others the difference is more substantial. They cover the period 1895-1974. There is no restriction on access to the main series of these minutes, but access is restricted to a series of printed minutes of the Public Assistance Committee in accordance with UK Data Protection Law.

The records are arranged as follows:
BC/2/1/1-7 Signed minutes of the full Council.
BC/2/1/8-177 Signed minutes of Committees and sub-committees. Committee minutes are arranged generally in alphabetical order of the name of the committee, except where a number of different committees dealt with the same or similar matters, in which case all the committees are grouped together. (For example, all the various committees which dealt with Planning matters are catalogued one after another, under P). Note also that the Sanitary and Surveying Committees are listed at the start of the group, as they succeeded the 1851 Bath Act Committee. Minutes of sub-committees are listed immediately after the Committee to which they reported, in chronological order of the start date of the sub-committee.
BC/2/1/178- 183 Printed minutes of Council and Committees
BC/2/1/ 184 - ? Accounts presented to the Council and Committees [not yet catalogued]
BC/2/1/ ? Council Yearbooks [Diaries] [not yet catalogued]
Contents
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