Bath City Council Contracts

This series comprises contracts and related registers of contracts for building works and the provision of supplies, equipment and services contracted for by Bath City Council.

Bath City Council was a major property owner in the city (see description at BC/6) and the contracts reflect its responsibilities for maintaining and developing its portfolio of commercial, heritage and housing properties. The contracts are legally binding documents which set out the arrangements for specific works paid for by the Council and undertaken by contractors. The contractors were usually selected following a competitive tendering process. They provide an insight into the work of small to medium size local businesses such as builders, decorators, electricians, plumbers, when other records of these companies may no longer exist.

The series is especially useful for tracing the development of council housing in the city in the twentieth century and they are a significant source of evidence for the design, quality and methods of construction of council houses over time.

Arrangement
The contract files are organised numerically by year and then date. The files were reorganised in the 1980s and therefore contract numbers in the registers will not necessarily match with current reference numbers.

The Records
Contract files can include: the contract and conditions of contract, tenders, guarantees, specifications, bills of quantities which provided a breakdown of costings for materials and labour, correspondence and plans.
The Contract Registers were created by the Town Clerk’s department as an overview record of the contracts entered into by the Corporation and to provide summary information on them. These can be useful for providing an overview of all contracts signed by the Corporation, as not all have survived to the present day.

The Contracts relate primarily to residential properties, including city centre Georgian properties and the development of council housing estates and ‘old persons dwellings’, now referred to as housing for the elderly, in the 20th Century. However, the contracts also include works to: Corporation offices; museums, galleries and libraries; The Baths complexes; emergency service buildings including the Police and Fire stations; education and leisure facilities; parks and cemeteries; reservoirs and pumping stations; sewers and sewage disposal works; creation of the infrastructure for park and ride bus services; bridges; road and footpath improvements; hotels; car parks and public conveniences.

Some buildings of note include:
- Assembly Rooms
- The Baths
- Bath Sport and Leisure Centre
- Bath Technical College
- Empire Hotel
- The Guildhall, Markets and Art Gallery
- Haycombe Crematorium
- Pump Rooms

Records of council housing include: construction and development of estates, temporary housing post 1945, demolition and clearance of bomb damaged sites, ongoing maintenance, repairs and modernisation works particularly to pre-1939 council housing; improvements to water supply and supply of central heating, gas and electricity; re-wiring, fire precaution works, insulation works and provision of facilities such as: laundry blocks, smoke detectors, automatic door closure systems, telephone entry door systems, pram and bike storage and garages.

Includes records of the following housing estates with date of first relevant contract:

- Englishcombe Lane/Englishcombe Park (Now The Oval) (1920)
- Rudmore Park (1926)
- Southdown (1927)
- Fosseway Estate (also known as Odd Down) (1930)
- Kingsmead flats (1931)
- Shophouse Road (1936)
- Avon Park (1937)
- Rose Hill (1937)
- Roundhill and Whiteway (1938)
- Dolemeads (1939)
- Twerton and Moorlands (1945)
- Weston (1946)
- Innox Park (1947)
- Foxhill (1950)
- Somerdale Avenue (1950)
- Cotswold Road (1950)
- Stirtingale (1950)
- Southlands, Weston (1951)
- Combe Down (1951)
- Snow Hill (1952)
- Bannerdown, Batheaston (1953)
- Hadley Road (1954)
- Wansdyke (1956)
- Twerton/Whiteway (1957)
- Rosewell Court (1961)
- Westcombe (1961)
- Monksdale (1962)
- Wedmore Park (1964)
- Moorfields Road (1965)
- Redland Park (1967)
- Springfield Farm, Foxhill (1968)
- Whitewells (1969)
- Penn Hill (1969)
- Balance Street (1969)
- Weston Park (1970)
- Lansdown View (1970)