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London Metropolitan Archives

SABAH TIMBER COMPANY LIMITED


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/B/112-137

Held at: London Metropolitan Archives

Title: SABAH TIMBER COMPANY LIMITED

Date(s): 1889-1985

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 163 production units comprising 17 volumes, 2 binders, 2 bundles, 8 folders and 134 envelopes.

Name of creator(s): Sabah Timber Co Ltd

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sabah Timber Company Limited was registered in 1920 as British Borneo Timber Company Limited, on an agreement between Harrisons and Crosfield Limited and British North Borneo (Chartered) Company. Harrisons and Crosfield Limited transferred the property and assets of China Borneo Company Limited to British Borneo Timber Company Limited. The company received timber cutting licences. Harrisons and Crosfield acted as secretaries and agents for British Borneo Timber Company Limited from 1920.

British Borneo Timber Company Limited supplied logs to Borneo Veneers Limited (established in 1959), which was half owned by British Borneo Timber Company Limited and half by Plywoods Limited.

In 1963 British Borneo Timber Company Limited was renamed Sabah Timber Company Limited. (It already controlled a company named Sabah Timber Company, registered in March 1963. The name of this company was changed in October 1963 to Sabah Trading Company Limited, see CLC/B/112-138). In the same year the name of Borneo Veneers Limited was changed to Sabah Veneers Limited (see CLC/B/112-139).

In 1972/3 Harrisons and Crosfield Limited acquired 50% of the shareholding in Sabah Timber Company Limited which became a subsidiary company. It became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1978.

Sabah Timber Company Limited acquired a number of other timber supplying companies including John Wright and Son (Redditch) Limited in 1969, William T Storer and Company Limited in 1970, Robinson, David and Company in 1969 and Pattinson and Company Limited in 1982.

In 1982 the last logging agreement ended and Sabah Timber Company developed an extensive timber and building supplies network in the UK and Ireland. In 1988 the timber and building supplies operations of Harrisons and Crosfield Limited were consolidated into a single corporate identity: Harcros Timber and Building Supplies Limited.

For historical notes on Sabah Timber Company see CLC/B/112/MS37392.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of Sabah Timber Company Limited, including articles of association; agreements; board minutes, papers and agendas; annual reports; general reports; circulars to shareholders; reports and correspondence relating to timber production and other operational matters; reports on estate visits; financial accounts; statistics regarding timber production; inventories; papers regarding staff; plans; and photographs of war damage to the estates.

Access to records less than 30 years old (or records less than 70 years old which relate to staff) should be sought from Elementis plc (contact details may be obtained from a member of staff).

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.

Conditions governing access:

Restricted access: please see staff.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.

Finding aids:

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

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The records of Harrisons and Crosfield and its subsidiary and secretarial companies were transferred to Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section between 1990 and 1998. The records were presented as a gift to the Library, except the minute books of some subsidiary companies which are held as a deposit. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Related material:

The Harrisons and Crosfield Ltd collection has been divided into 167 sub-fonds; CLC/B/112-001 to CLC/B/112-167. 001 to 016 are records relating to Harrisons and Crosfield (such as operational records, staff records, property records and so on), and 017 to 167 are the records of subsidiaries, plantations and associated organisations.

DESCRIPTION NOTES 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: November 2010 to January 2011.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Business records | Documents | Information sources
Plantation records | Documents | Information sources
Plantations | Agricultural land
Timber | Materials
Timber industry | Industry
Timber merchants | Merchants | Mercantile personnel | Personnel | People by occupation | People
World War Two (1939-1945) | World wars (events) | Wars (events)

Personal names

Corporate names
Sabah Timber Co Ltd
Sabah Veneers Ltd

Places
Borneo | South East Asia