CLERK'S DEPARTMENT: CLERK OF THE COUNTY COUNCIL

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: MCC/CL/CC
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: CLERK'S DEPARTMENT: CLERK OF THE COUNTY COUNCIL
Date(s)	: 1854-1965
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 43.75 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: MCC | Middlesex County Council x Middlesex County Council

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

In 1889 County Council policy was directed by 72 members and administered under the leadership of Sir Richard Nicolson, Clerk of the County Council, and a handful of staff. The number of members had risen to 116 by 1952 and by 1965 the County staff numbered some 32,000, of whom 2,000 head office staff occupied the Guildhall and five other offices in Westminster. This indicates the tremendous increase in administrative work under successive Clerks of the County Council.

In the years between the two wars a semi-rural county became an almost completely urbanised area. The introduction of new legislation made ever increasing demands upon members of the administrative staff, involving in later years monthly meetings of some 50 committees and sub-committees.

The Middlesex County Council Clerks of the Council were:
Sir Richard Nicholson, 1889-1909
Walter George Austin, 1909-1918
Sir Ernest Walter Sidney Hart, 1919-1935
Sir Clifford Walter Radcliffe, 1935-1954
Kenneth Goodacre, 1955-1965.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Middlesex County Council Clerk's Department, 1854-1965, including general files on a variety of subjects including ancient monuments, solicitors, pictures at the Guildhall, highways, Poor Law institutions, transport, schools and education, vagrancy, staffing, the First World War, national service, air raid precautions, civil defence, the Second World War, refugees, rationing, the Royal Commission on Local Government in Greater London, prevention and relief of war distress, King George V Jubilee trust fund, parades and ceremonial events.

Personal papers of Sir Clifford Radcliffe, Clerk from 1935 to 1954 and author of the official history of the County Council, including personal correspondence, budget estimates, press cuttings, departmental organisation chart, papers relating to personnel problems, preparations in case of invasion during the Second World War and record of bombs dropped on Middlesex during the Second World War.

Personal papers of Joan Heddle, personal assistant to the Clerk from 1910 to 1965, including general correspondence, copies of relevant Parliamentary legislation, papers relating to legal cases involving the MCC, publicity and press cuttings, ceremonies including Royal events, twinning and visits abroad, papers relating to the preparation of publications about the County, papers relating to staff and personnel matters, papers relating to offices and other properties owned by the MCC, papers relating to departmental organisation, papers relating to Council services including town planning, hospitals, roads, sewers, flood prevention and rivers, papers relating to the Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex, papers relating to Justices, papers relating to the County Record Office and papers relating to the Royal Commission on London Government.

Reports and correspondence relating to MCC services and functions including rates, hospitals, public health, judiciary and courts, elections, finances, legislation, maintenance of Council owned buildings, education and schools, roads and highways, open spaces and parks, sewerage and drainage, and transport.

Financial accounts; papers relating to staff; maps of Middlesex showing various information including water companies, unions, parishes, population density, distribution of education, fire, ambulance, health and welfare services, roads, local government boundary changes, drainage and sewers, parks and open spaces; official sealed orders for boundary changes and other purposes; joint orders and other orders.

Publications produced by the Clerk's Department, including Middlesex: the Jubilee of the County Council 1889-1939 by Sir Clifford Radcliffe; The Administrative Work of the County Council and its committee (1949); and Your career in the local government service with the Middlesex County Council (1955).

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

MCC/CL/CC/01: General files; MCC/CL/CC/02: Sir Clifford Radcliffe; MCC/CL/CC/03: Miss Joan Heddle; MCC/CL/CC/04: Reports and correspondence; MCC/CL/CC/05: General and committee correspondence; MCC/CL/CC/06: Financial; MCC/CL/CC/07: Miscellaneous material from the department; MCC/CL/CC/08: Maps and plans; MCC/CL/CC/09: Publications.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to these records rests with the Corporation of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its parent authority, the Middlesex County Council, and with successor authorities.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

For further information on the history of the Middlesex County Council please see Middlesex by Sir Clifford Radcliffe (2 editions, 1939 and 1953), LMA Library reference 97.09 MID; and The County Council of the Administrative County of Middlesex: 76 years of local government, 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1965, by Middlesex County Council (1965), LMA library reference S97.09 MID.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
April to June 2009