Maidenhead Borough records

M/A ADMINISTRATION (TOWN CLERKS’ RECORDS)

M/AB Bridge records, 1772-1835
M/AB1 Minutes, 1772-1835
M/AB2 Miscellaneous, 1727-[c.1850]

M/AC Council and Committee records
M/AC1 Corporation minutes
M/AC1/1 Minutes of the Unreformed Corporation, 1636-1835
M/AC1/2-3 Minutes of the Reformed Corporation, 1835-1971
M/AC2 Committee minutes, 1835-1967
M/AC3 Committee reports, 1903-1908

M/AP Parish records, 1775-1827

M/AS Records of special commissions and boards
M/AS1 Local Board of Health, 1852-1872

M/AZ Miscellaneous records, 1778-1860

M/F FINANCE (BOROUGH TREASURER’S DEPARTMENT)

M/FB Bridgemasters' accounts and tolls, 1606-1821
M/FBA Bridgemaasters’ accounts, 1606-1821
M/FBT Bridge tolls, 1755-1772

M/FCA Corporation accounts, 1858-1888

M/FQ Charity records, 1732-1774

M/FR Rating and valuation records
M/FR1 Pre-1929: Poor rates and general district rates, c.1850-1922
M/FR2 Valuation, 1929-1955
M/FR3 Rate books, 1931-1962

M/FT Mortgages of tolls, etc, 1690-1803

M/FZ Miscellaneous financial records, 1721-1824

M/I INCORPORATION RECORDS

M/IC Charters and cognate documents, 1578-1685

M/J JUDICIAL RECORDS

M/JB Borough court of record, 1582-1740

M/JM Court of the Clerk of the Market, 1760-1834

M/JQ Quarter sessions, 1686-1841

M/R REGISTRATION AND DEPOSIT

M/RO Registration, 1755-1880
M/RZ Miscellaneous deposited records, 1637-1908

M/T TOWN PROPERTY, 1393-1877

M/Z MISCELLANEOUS, 1662-1938

The types of records held in this collection reflect the history of the town and borough. The parish of Maidenhead was only formed in 1870 and prior to this the town of Maidenhead lay partly in the parish of Bray and partly in the parish of Cookham.

A chapel of ease was founded in about 1270 near to Maidenhead Bridge, and after some dispute was formally annexed to Cookham in 1324, with right of presentation. An additional chantry closely linked to Hurley Priory was founded in the chapel in 1352 and by the fifteenth century was known by the double name of St Andrew and St Mary. In 1423 a hermitage was also founded in connection with the taking of alms to help repair the bridge. The chantry priest appealed to the crown in 1451 and as a result the Gild of St Andrew and St Mary was formed with Overseer, Wardens, Brethren and Sisters, to care for the upkeep of the bridge.

After the dissolution the inhabitants elected their own chaplain in 1557 (ignoring the responsibility of the vicar of Cookham) and Philip and Mary accepted the new arrangement and fixed a stipend of £4.12.4d from the Treasury. The inhabitants petitioned Elizabeth I for a re-formation of the gild and in 1578 this was granted by an inspeximus of the charter of 1451. Four years later a new charter transformed the gild into the Warden, Bridge Masters, Burgesses and Commonalty of the Free Town of Maidenhead. From this time the Corporation acted as patrons to the chapel and the Bridgemasters acted as Churchwardens.

Maidenhead was generally regarded to be within the hundred of Bray. The manors of Bray and Cookham exerted some power of the town which never had any separate manoiral jurisdiction and as late as the nineteenth century Maidenhead Town was a tything or ward of Bray for poor law purposes.

The peculiar formation of the town means that the records include those normally regarded as parochial and of an ecclesiastical nature. The accounts of the Bridgemasters are combined with churchwardens' accounts and act instead of the accounts of borough treasurers, chamberlains and bailiffs.