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London Metropolitan Archives

POPLAR COMMISSION OF SEWERS


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): PCS

Held at: London Metropolitan Archives

Title: POPLAR COMMISSION OF SEWERS

Date(s): 1629-1847

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 1.63 linear metres

Name of creator(s): Poplar Commission of Sewers

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

On 18th January 1600 a Commission of Sewers was issued to Sir John Picton and others 'for serten lymitts betwene Lymehouse and Blackwall'. The Commission for 1620 was for 'Stebenheath alias Poplar Marsh', and this with some verbal variations was used for most of the later Commissions.

Early Commissioners of Sewers were solely concerned with land drainage and the prevention of flooding, not with the removal of sewage in the modern sense. In 1531 an Act of Sewers was passed which set out in great detail the duties and powers of Commissioners and governed their work until the 19th century. Gradually a permanent pattern emerged in the London area of seven commissions, five north and two south of the Thames, with, after the Great Fire, a separate commission for the City of London. The London commissioners had more extensive powers than those in other parts of the country; they had control over all watercourses and ditches within two miles of the City of London as well as newly constructed drains and sewers. After 1800 the London commissioners also obtained powers to control the formation of new sewers and house drains.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Poplar Commission of Sewers, including Letters Patent appointing Commissioners, 1702-1837; writs and warrants, 1662-1847, including writs authorizing the Commissioners to execute their office faithfully, writs discharging certain Commissioners from their duties, writs to summon juries and warrants for collection of rates; registers of orders and decrees, 1629-1847; out letter book, 1828-1843; financial accounts and rate books, 1780-1847; New Testament belonging to the Commissioners, 1797; reference book listing owners and occupiers, 1817; and maps and plans of Poplar showing sewers and levels of land.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

PCS/1-13: Letters Patent; PCS/14-62: Writs and Warrants; PCS/63-68: Registers; PCS/69: Correspondence; PCS/70-78: Financial; PCS/79-80: Printed Items; PCS PR/1-5: Maps and Plans.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City of London.

Physical characteristics:

Some registers unfit for access, please use microfilm X88/8-9.

Finding aids:

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

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Acquired with the records of its successor body.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

For the original Commissions of Sewers see The National Archives Crown Office Docquet Books, reference Ind. 4208 and Ind. 4211.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

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


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Drainage | Water resources
Health policy | Health
Improvement commissioners | Commissioners | People by roles | People
Maintenance | Engineering
Public health | Health
Sewage disposal | Waste disposal | Sanitation | Environmental engineering
Sewerage | Water resources
Sewers | Waste treatment | Waste disposal | Sanitation | Environmental engineering
Water supply | Water resources management
Public health x Health policy

Personal names

Corporate names
Poplar Commission of Sewers

Places
Poplar | London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe
Tower Hamlets