Records of the Thames Conservancy

The cataloguing of this collection was made possible by an Archives Revealed Grant, funded by The National Archives, The Pilgrim Trust and The Wolfson Foundation.

The records of the Thames Conservancy are administrative in nature and comprise records of Board and Committee meetings from 1866 to 1974, including near full runs of minute books, attendance registers and indexes (D/TC/A; D/TC/B); Engineer’s Department records consisting of reports and plans (D/TC/C); Head Office staff records (D/TC/D); financial records including annual reports and ledgers relating to the Conservancy and Land Drainage Funds (D/TC/E1); a small series of records relating to property and land, showing particulars of deeds (D/TC/F); records pertaining to functions of inspection and monitoring, with letter books and journals arranged relating to the duties of the Navigation Inspectors (D/TC/G1) and the statistical monitoring of river water levels (D/TC/G2); registers relating to licencing and registration of launches, works along the towpath, accommodations and fisheries (D/TC/H); a series of legal records particularly relating to actions taken by the Conservancy against river polluters, Thames Conservancy byelaws and printed Acts of Parliament, as well as Parliamentary inquiries and proceedings brought against the Conservancy by individuals (D/TC/I); and finally, a series comprising the records of inherited powers, including the Thames Conservancy’s predecessor the Thames Navigation Commission and later Drainage Boards and Reading Waterworks (D/TC/J). The records of the inherited powers comprise a mix of records including minutes of meetings, reports, maps and plans.

The Conservancy was reconstituted after the Port of London Authority Act, 1908 with many of the Standing Committees established during this time. The surviving minute books for earlier committees, which sat during the Conservancy’s tenure as the main authority over the River Thames, include the Upper River Committee (1866-1909), the River Purification Committee (1893-1974) and the Finance and General Purposes Committee (1893-1974) which began as two separate committees before merging in 1909. The Committee minute books are arranged by the various Standing Committees, followed by the various Special Committees and Sub-Committees that were established in later years (D/TC/B8).

Engineer’s kept or created records have been arranged into their own series according to function, including reports relating to works undertaken (D/TC/C1) and plans showing works and surveys to the river and structures managed by the Conservancy (D/TC/C3-7). The plans pertaining to specific locks and weirs are arranged by location from the upper reaches down to where the Conservator’s jurisdiction ends near Staines (D/TC/C3).

Records relating to inspection and monitoring activities and particularly the letter books and journals kept and created by Navigation Inspectors allow an insight into the duties of officials of the Conservancy and means of river inspection along with day-to-day events and occurrences (D/TC/G1). Similarly, the full run of volumes of tackle sheets kept by lock-keepers to monitor lock water levels provide a means to understand changes on the upper river over an eighty year period (1892-1972) (D/TC/G2).

A Board meetings

A1 Minutes

A2 Attendance registers

A3 Special meetings

B Committee records

B1 Upper River Committee

B2 River Purification Committee

B3 Finance and General Purposes Committee

B4 Parliamentary Committee

B5 Works, Navigation and Regulation of Water Committee

B6 Land Drainage Committee

B7 Establishment Committee

B8 Special Committees and sub-committees

B9 Other river authorities and associations

C Engineer’s Department

C1 Report

C2 Memoranda

C3 Plans of works to locks, weirs and ferries

C4 Maps and plans of land, premises, bridges, vessels and machinery

C5 Maps and plans of the river

C6 Maps and plans not created by the Thames Conservancy

D Staff

D1 Staff lists

D2 Wage books

D3 Records of staff duties

D4 Lock staff forms and lists

D5 Photographs

E Finance

E1 Annual accounts

E2 Records of expenditure

E3 Records of income

E4 Treasurer’s administrative records

F Property and land

F1 Deeds and mortgages

F2 Registers of land charges

F3 Evidence of property

G Inspection and Monitoring

G1 Records of the Navigation Inspectors

G2 Water level monitoring records

G3 Statistics relating to river traffic

H Licensing and registration

H1 Licences issued

H2 Registrations and records of launches

H3 Registrations of accommodations

H4 Registrations of club colours

I Legal

I1 Parliamentary inquiries

I2 Public inquiries and proceedings of the Board

I3 River pollution legal proceedings

I4 Thames Conservancy byelaws

I5 Actions

I6 Printed material relating to Bills and Acts of Parliament

J Inherited Powers

J1 Thames Navigation Commission

J2 Thames Valley Drainage Commission

J3 Records of individual Drainage Boards

J4 Records of Reading Waterworks

Z Miscellaneous

In the 11th Century the Thames was designated as one of the four Royal Rivers in England, along with the Severn, Trent and Ouse, with the Crown claiming control. Early jurisdiction and management of the river from its seaward limit to Staines was granted to the City of London Corporation by King Richard I. The City of London Corporation maintained this jurisdiction over the lower river until the passing of the first Thames Conservancy Act, 1857, whereby a new body was incorporated with jurisdiction over the river from Yantlet Creek to the City Stone above Staines Bridge.

Early management of sections of the upper river fell to the Oxford to Burcot Commission, formed in 1605. The Commission was the first administration to make improvements to the Navigation of the upper river. Under the provision of an Act of Parliament in 1623, the earliest pound locks along the Thames were constructed by the Commission, including those at Iffley and Sandford.

Throughout the mid-eighteenth into the nineteenth century, the Upper Navigation, from Cricklade to the point of the river managed by the City of London Corporation (and later the Conservators) was managed by the Thames Navigation Commissioners, a body constituted in 1751 through the Thames and Isis Navigation Act (under King George II). The powers granted by the Act were limited in scope and no significant lock building took place until the 1770s.

The Commission was granted further powers by an Act of Parliament, which gained royal assent on 22nd April 1771 (under King George III), replacing the earlier Act. The Act provided the Commissioners with the authority ?For improving and completing the Navigation of the Rivers Thames and Isis from the City of London to the Town of Cricklade?. The Commissioners gained greater powers to improve the physical state of the river, allowing them to control traffic and to regulate the users of the river and towpath owners. With their newfound powers, they set about building some of the first pound locks along the Upper Navigation, including Boulter?s, Hambleden and Sonning Locks. Old flash weirs, which were often private and used by mill owners to regulate water, as well as existing towpaths were also purchased and were replaced with new pound locks.

The Commissioners? attempts at improvement of the Upper Navigation were beset with problems, however, as various groups and individuals retained an interest in the way in which the Navigation was managed. Riparian landowners, mill owners and those who used the river to fish or transport goods voiced their opposition to improvements that would risk their interests. Barge masters, who required a freely flowing river were also often in conflict with mill owners, over their regulation of the water levels around their mills. The Commissioners also suffered with issues in raising the required funds necessary to complete works, as well as financial mismanagement by their banker, John Mason. The lock-keepers who had been charged with managing the pound locks built by the Commissioners were also unreliable, often neglecting their duties.

By 1788, a further Act extended the financial powers of the Commissioners, providing for more borrowing and enabling tolls to be levied on any lock. This opened up sources of income for the Commissioners to complete further works and improvements.

The emergence of the railway meant that river traffic dramatically declined in the 19th century. Barges and the traffic of goods along the Thames were heavily diminished, unable to compete with the speed and efficiency of the railway. As a result, greater numbers of pleasure craft users grew along the Navigation.

The Thames Conservancy was incorporated by the Thames Conservancy Act, 1857, with jurisdiction from Yantlet Creek to the City Stone above Staines Bridge. The Conservancy?s jurisdiction was further extended under the Thames Navigation Act, 1866, whereby the Thames Navigation Commission?s powers and jurisdiction were transferred to the Conservators and their management over the whole river began.

The Conservancy continued and strengthened the work completed by earlier administrations, particularly as the early pound locks and weirs built by the Commissioners were by this time dangerous and falling into disrepair. The Conservators set about replacing these pound locks, which were built using materials such as timber, having rotted and degraded over time.

A further Act in 1878 provided for additional payments to be made to the Conservators by water companies in London, who were permitted to abstract water from the river. These funds were used to undertake repair work and improvements to the river above Oxford.

Main navigation functions of the Conservators comprise the construction and maintenance of locks, weirs and dredging with the purpose of maintaining and improving the navigation and flow of the river. Particularly this meant the removal of obstructions and regulation of water levels, as well as the prevention of pollution in the river and its tributaries and streams. The prevention of pollution was actioned through means including serving notices, with non-compliance followed up with legal proceedings. Extended river purification powers were derived from sections 90 to 108 of the Thames Conservancy Act, 1894 (the powers granted under previous Acts were consolidated under this Act).

The Conservators? jurisdiction extended over the whole river for four decades until 1909, when the Port of London Act, 1908 was passed and the control of the river below Staines was transferred to the Port of London Authority. The Thames Conservancy was reconstituted, becoming the Thames Conservancy Board. Conservators were chosen by certain appointing authorities, including local authorities (from the Act of 1894 this was amended and limited to 38 appointed and seven elected). The first woman to be appointed a Conservator (Mrs M.M. Ashdown) was nominated by Middlesex County Council in 1946.

The reconstitution of the organisation meant the establishment of four standing committees, which were the River Purification Committee; the Finance and General Purposes Committee; the Parliamentary Committee and the Works Navigation and Regulation of Water Committee. The River Purification and Finance and General Purposes Committees were reconstituted, as these committees were established at an earlier date, with pollution prevention powers conferred to the Conservators in the Act of 1894. Later standing committees included the Land Drainage Committee, constituted in 1931 and the Establishment Committee, which followed in 1938.

Thames Conservancy officers included Engineers, Navigation and River Purification Inspectors and lock staff. The staff were organised by departments including the Secretary?s Department, of which included both head office and outdoor River Purification and Navigation inspection staff. The staff were divided between districts, monitoring river users, pollution and the general condition of the river within the boundary of each district. Conservancy staff collected tolls from river users and the registration of vessels and permanent moorings, which included motor launches and houseboats. Similarly, the Conservancy also charged for licences for private individuals to complete work, including dredging and the installation of landing stages, rafts and steps along the towpath.

Early lock staff were faced with heavy manual work, harsh conditions in winter with little pay and only a basic standard of living. Lock-keepers were also expected to serve river users at all hours of the day, providing them with little respite from their duties. By the twentieth century, lock staff were represented in several different committees, including the Lock-keepers? and Ferryman?s Welfare Committee, Lock Staff Special Committee and the Lock-keepers? Gardens Committee. The latter committee was involved in the annual competition (first established in 1898) for the best lock garden and the awarding of cash prizes and the Sir Reginald Hanson Challenge Cup. Lock-keepers and ferrymen were also encouraged to grow their own vegetables within lock gardens, with visiting inspectors routinely presenting them with seeds.

By the 20th Century lock staff were heavily involved in serving the pleasure craft users, so the Conservancy began standardising their dress and duties. To present a professional team of officials who represented the Conservancy, lock staff were issued with uniforms and instruction booklets, which contained information on daily duties and expected conduct and behaviours to adhere to whilst assisting the public. Although conditions had improved, lock staff still struggled financially, particularly after the First World War when the cost of living had risen. On several occasions, lock staff petitioned to the Conservators for an increase in pay and better working conditions.

The Land Drainage Act, 1930 provided for exclusive powers and jurisdiction, with the Conservators gaining authority as the Drainage Board of the Thames Catchment Area (including tributaries). This meant the improvement of existing works and construction of new works including the cleansing, repairing, deepening, widening and straightening of the main river and general maintenance. As the Conservancy was designated the overall authority over the Thames Catchment Area, the Act also abolished drainage boards, including the Thames Valley Drainage Commission and other individual Drainage Boards.

During the 1940s the Conservancy?s improvements to the Navigation slowed, owing to the events of the Second World War. Many officials and members of staff were called up to active service, with the lock staff replaced with relief lock-keepers, often being pensioned former staff or the wives of those in service. During this time, remaining Conservancy employees volunteered for a special section of the Home Guard, with the aim of protecting the river, the Upper Thames Patrol. Land Drainage work accelerated during this period, however, owing to a greater need to provide food from agricultural land. Owing to a lack of British labour, the Conservancy utilised prisoners of war to undertake clearance work and later employed European volunteer workers. The work largely concentrated on general maintenance works along the main river, with tree clearance, hand dredging, weed cutting, fencing, culverting, formation of flood banks, weir control and removal of obstructions undertaken on the tributaries.

During the post-war years the Conservancy embarked upon a programme of modernisation work, replacing locks and weirs, some of which were over one hundred years old by this time and building new lock-houses and facilities for lock-keepers. Hydraulic operating systems were installed in the 1960s, allowing for the opening and closing of lock gates with greater ease.

The Thames Conservancy was abolished under section 33 of the Water Act, 1973, with the Navigation and powers conferred under the Act transferred to the new nationalised body the Thames Water Authority. The Conservancy ceased operating from 1 April 1974 but continued symbolically as the Thames Conservancy Division under the new Authority.