SURVEYOR'S AND ENGINEER'S RECORDS

Arrangement of catalogue

WO/SA Administrative records

WO/SA1 Surveyor's diaries

WO/SA2 Correspondence

WO/SA3 Reports

WO/SA4 Emergency functions

WO/SA5 Miscellaneous

WO/SB Building and planning control

WO/SB1 Building and planning applications

WO/SB2 Submitted plans

WO/SB3 Restriction of development

WO/SF Financial records

WO/SF1 General accounts

WO/SF2 Special accounts

WO/SF3 Wages accounts

WO/SH Housing

WO/SH1 Municipal housing development

WO/SH2 Plans and elevations of municipal housing

WO/SH3 Maintenance

WO/SP Planning

WO/SP1 Municipal planning and development

WO/SR Roads and bridges

WO/SR1 Streetlighting

WO/SR2 Roads and highways

WO/SS Sanitation

WO/SS1 Sewerage and drainage

WO/SW Public buildings and works

WO/SW1 Corporation offices

WO/SW2 Municipal projects

WO/SZ Miscellaneous surveyor's records

The collection includes some financial records which date from the time of the Local Board (WO/SF1/1-3, 3/1). In general though, the surveyor's records cover the first half of the twentieth century, with the most complete series, the diaries (WO/SA1/1-25), spanning 1898-1964

On 1 April 1974 the borough of Wokingham became the parish of Wokingham, in Wokingham District, and its status changed to that of town council

Surveyors to Wokingham Local Board of Health

1874-1877 John Wigg

1877-[1885] Edward Lane

Surveyors to Wokingham borough

[1885]-1896 Edward Lane

1896-1897 William Walton

1897-1903 J. Manley

1903-1938 C.W. Marks

1938-1944 Roland Hole

1945-1966 E. Pressey

1966-1971 H. Bathurst

1971-1974 R. Gwynn

Summary

ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS : surveyors' diaries, 1898-1964; letter books, 1896-1944 (incomplete); reports to committees, 1900-1918; letters from borough surveyor acting as the local fuel overseer, 1918-1920, 1939-1943; register of properties damaged by energy action, 1940-1943; copies of tenders etc, 1923-1938

BUILDING AND PLANNING CONTROL : register of building licences for materials and labour priorities, 1946-1954; submitted plans, 1920s-1950; map of land restricted for development, 1935

FINANCIAL RECORDS : weekly accounts, surveyor to Wokingham Local Board of Health, 1874-1880; miscellaneous accounts, including for construction of Broad Street sewers, 1895-1907; wages accounts, 1882-1883, 1890-1891

HOUSING : plans of municipal housing development schemes, 1920-1947; plans and elevations of housing, 1920-1945; town plan of housing to be condemned or retained, c.1950s; displacement register, 1955-1965

PLANNING : plans of proposed redevelopment of Wokingham, 1943-1944

ROADS AND BRIDGES : details of streetlighting, 1908-1951; plan of streetworks, 1910

SANITATION : maps and plans of sewerage and drainage, 1881-1930

PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND WORKS : plans of proposed alterations to town hall, 1908-1939; plans of proposed corporation offices [? St Paul's rectory], c.1950s; plans of miscellaneous municipal projects, including air raid shelters, parks, mortuary and youth centre, 1938-1945

MISCELLANEOUS : plans of housing etc. from other local authorities, 1929-1945; letter books from the borough surveyor as manager of Bracknell Sewage works, 1925-1937

Introduction

In the mid-nineteenth century, the vestry of the ecclesiastical parish of Wokingham would appoint surveyors of highways and nuisances both for the town, and for the outlying areas of the parish. In the late 1860s this arrangement hit a snag, when a nuisance caused by the town was dealt with by one of the divisional parochial surveyors. The latter incurred a bill which no one was willing to pay, and a sewerage committee was formed in 1870 to sort the matter out (for more details, see D/P154/8/5 and WO/AUS).

The sewerage committee appears to have been formed under the provisions of the Sanitation Act 1866 (29 & 30 Vic, c.90), and it is likely that this development led in turn to the formation of a Wokingham district sewerage authority, which appointed a district surveyor.

Whatever the exact nature of the evolution of this function in Wokingham, in 1874 a Local Board of Health was constituted, and from this date the position of a (municipal) surveyor and inspector of public nuisances is confirmed. When the borough was granted a new charter of incorporation in 1885, the functions of the Local Board of Health were merged with it, and the surveyor became the borough surveyor.