IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): MCC/CL/PRO/PH
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: CLERK'S DEPARTMENT: PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER
Date(s): 1849-1975
Level of description: sub-fonds
Extent: 6.96 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 increased demands upon members of the administrative staff, involving in later years monthly meetings of some 50 committees and sub-committees.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Photographs from the Middlesex County Council Clerk's Department Public Relations Officer, 1849-1975, including photographs from the Architect's Department showing school and college buildings, libraries, a medical clinic and a fire station; photographs from the Clerk's Department showing the Middlesex Guildhall, the Council Chamber in session, court rooms, Council offices and art works in the Guildhall; photographs of roads and tramways including official openings, the first trams on certain lines, storage depots and construction works; photographs of rivers and bridges, including the River Brent, erosion of riverbanks, footpaths alongside rivers and river currents; photographs from the Public Control Department showing a weighbridge in operation, coal weighing van in operation and Public Control officers at work verifying weights, in the chemical laboratory and checking foodstuffs; portraits of members of the County Council and other staff; aerial surveys made in preparation for the construction of the M25 and M4 motorways and some highways; photographs of children at play and at Christmas [possibly children in care or in hospital]; photographs of archaeological finds from Middlesex and photographs of official events including Royal visits.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
MCC/CL/PRO/PH/01: Photographs from the Architect's Department; MCC/CL/PRO/PH/02-05: Photographs from the Clerk's Department; MCC/CL/PRO/PH/06: Photographs from the Public Control Department; MCC/CL/PRO/PH/07: Photographs of councillors, officers and the public; MCC/CL/PRO/PH/08: Aerial photographs; MCC/CL/PRO/PH/09: Out of county photographs.
Conditions governing access:
Available for general access.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to these records rests with the Corporation of London.
Physical characteristics:
Fit
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 parent authority, the Middlesex County Council, and with successor authorities.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
For papers of the Public Relations Officer see MCC/CL/PRO.
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
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