Solicitor's Papers

DD/CCH/1-9 comprises of Records from the office at Stogumber relating principally to the practices of Charles Edward Rowcliffe (d. 1877) and his successor Edwin Hellard.

DD/CCH/10-46 comprises of Records from the stables at Stogumber relating principally to the practice of Charles Edward Rowcliffe, his successor Edwin Hellard, and their major clients.

This deposit contains all records in fair (or better) condition capable of salvage from the mass of unsorted records deposited in the stables apparently from the mid-1920s onwards. It is believed to represent a good cross-section of the firm's activities with a concentration on major clients such as the West Somerset Mineral Railway and associated Companies and the Trevelyan estate.

The records have been treated in the following order:

Rowcliffe correspondence

Papers of Charles E.Rowcliffe, decd.

West Somerset Mineral Railway

Ebbw Vale Iron Ore Co.Ltd.

Brendon Hills Iron Ore Co.Ltd.

West Somerset Mineral Syndicate

Watchet Harbour

Trevelyan Estate

Taylor

Gore Langton Estate

Sanford

Miscellaneous Clients

DD/CCH/47-53 West Somerset Mineral Railway records

The West Somerset Mineral Railway, running from Watchet Harbour to Gupworthy in Brompton Regis was incorporated in 1854 with Abraham Darby, Thomas Brown, William Tothill, Joseph Robinson and Frederick Levick as directors. The first four were involved in several other industrial concerns including the Brendon Hills Iron Ore Co., and the Ebbw Vale Co. which made extensive use of the railway from its completion in 1856. In 1869 the Ebbw Vale Iron, Steel and Coal Co., which had replaced the defunct Ebbw Vale Co. in 1866, took the railway on lease, under the West Somerset Mineral Railway Act of that year. The line was abandoned in 1923 and the affairs of the company finally wound up in 1925.

Material relating to the Railway can also be found in two earlier DD/CCH deposits, C/2367 and C/2397, the latter, boxes 17-25 has a large amount of correspondence 1885-1922, with other papers.

R. Sellick's The West Somerset Mineral Railway (1962) draws extensively on this collection.

A number of papers relating to the activities of the other companies mentioned above were found in the collection (Boxes 51 and 52), together with deeds and related documents (Box 53) which have no apparent connection with the railway or the other companies.

Mr Derwent Moger, a former partner of the depositing firm was Acting Secretary of the Railway Company 1923-1925.

DD/CCH/54-82 comprises papers relating largely to the Stogumber practice of C E Rowcliffe (d.1877) and his successor Edwin Hellard.

• <persname>Rowcliffe, Charles Edward, d 1877, solicitor of Stogumber, Somerset</persname>
• <persname>Hellard, Edwin, fl 1877-1925, solicitor, of Stogumber, Somerset</persname>

C/2367, c/2397, c/2825

c/2826, G/480