SAINT KATHERINE'S COMMISSION OF SEWERS

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: STKCS
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: SAINT KATHERINE'S COMMISSION OF SEWERS
Date(s)	: 1682-1841
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 0.65 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Saint Katherine's Commission of Sewers

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

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.

'The precinct of St. Katherines nigh the Tower of London' as it is described in the earliest Commission which has been found (1646), is the smallest area to have a separate Commission of Sewers in the neighbourhood of London.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Letters patent appointing Commissioners, 1729-1838; writ authorizing the Commissioners to take an oath, 1837; writs to summon juries, 1795-1837; minutes, 1782-1821; draft presentments and petitions, 1754-1841; minutes of the Court Leet regarding a pledge of the Manor of the Hospital of Saint Katherine by the Tower, 1791; plan of Nightingale Lane level produced in the Court of the Queen's Bench in the case of Saint Katherine's Dock versus Higgs, 1836; lease of a messuage [a portion of land occupied as the site for a dwelling house] and garden from the Master of the Hospital of Saint Katherine to Thomas Pickard, joiner, 1682.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

STKCS/1-9: Letters patent; STKCS/10-13: Writs; STKCS/14-15: Minutes; STKCS/16-32: Presentments; STKCS/33: Lease; STKCS/34: Minutes of Court Leet; STKCS/35: Plan.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: City 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 successor body, the Metropolitan Board of Works.

Allied Materials

Related material:

For further records relating to sewers in London please see MCS: Metropolitan Commission of Sewers; PCS: Poplar Commission of Sewers; SKCS: Surrey and Kent Commission of Sewers; THCS: Tower Hamlets Commission of Sewers; WCS: Westminster and Middlesex Commission of Sewers; NSJSB: North Surrey Joint Sewage Board; O/080 and O/160: Westminster Commission of Sewers; ACC/2766: Crossness Pumping Station; GCS: Greenwich Commission of Sewers; HLCS: Havering Level Commission of Sewers; HFCS: Holborn and Finsbury Commission of Sewers; RMSB: Richmond Main Sewerage Board; STKCS: Saint Katherine's Commission of Sewers; WVA: Wandle Valley Main Drainage Authority and MBW: Metropolitan Board of Works. For the City of London see CLA/006: City of London Commissioners of Sewers.

Publication note:

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