Records of Manchester Corporation Highways Department.

The ledger record day-to-day details of wages paid and expenditure upon materials, gravel and cinders and carting of material. There are two incomplete sequences of ledgers covering roughly parallel years. They differ in the number of entries to a page and in the use of the calendar or the financial year for completing accounts. From the names of the streets and the length of entries, it is inferred that M19/2 relates to the work of the Improvement Committee - either work carried out for it by the Surveyors, or work instigated by it but paid for out of the Highway Rate.

<span class="wrapper"><p>(For additional information see A. Redford: The History of Local Government in Manchester. vols. 1 and 2. 1940. (352.042 M149), G. W. Ormerod: Manual of Local Acts affecting the Townships comprised in the Boroughs of Manchester and Salford. 1838. (352.042 M74).</p> <p>See also Manchester Police Commissioners Records.</p> <p>(M9/40/2/13, M9/45/1-4).</p></span>

The ledgers were transferred from the City Surveyor's Department in 1960

Surveyors of the Highways were appointed from 1555 onwards. They were nominated by the Vestry and appointed by the Justices of the Peace. The Highways Act, 1819 (59 Geo. 3 c.xx) authorized the election annually, with powers to levy a rate of separate bodies of Surveyors for the Township and for the Parish of Manchester, the latter to have responsibility for roads which were not under the care of the individual townships within the Parish. The Highway Rate was raised on the Poor Law Assessment but was collected and administered separately by the Surveyors and had first to be allowed by the Justices in Quarter Session.

With the Manchester Improvement Act 1776 (16 Geo. 3. c.63), the Improvement Commissioners came into being. The Manchester and Salford Police Act, 1792 (23 Geo. 3. c.69) made provision for the Improvement Commissioners to be affiliated to the new body of Police Commissioners and under the Manchester and Salford Police Act of 1828 (9 Geo. 4 c.cxvii) they became a statutory committee of the latter. Prior to this date, improvements to streets were paid for out of voluntary subscriptions except where specific arrangements were made in a particular local act; e.g. The Act to Improve Market Street, 1821 (1 and 2 Geo. 4. c.cxxvi), specified that the Highway Rate should be increased and the Surveyors pay to the Commissioner the requisite amount annually. From 1828 the commissioners were empowered to use profits from the gas undertaking. The Police Commissioners were authorized to order the paving and sewering of streets not as yet public highways. In 1828, this task was assigned to the Lamp, Scavenging, Fire Engine and Main Sewer Committee, but three years later a separate Paving and Soughing Committee was formed. Expenses were recoverable from the owners of adjoining property but, initially, work was paid for out of the Police Rate.

Once a road had been declared a public highway, its future upkeep became the responsibility of the Surveyors of the Highways. Originally, only they could declare a road a public highway, but the power to do so was extended to the Police Commissioners in the 1792 Act. In the years prior to the incorporation of the borough, there appears to have been overlapping and confusion in the work carried out by the various bodies. In 1843, the powers of the Police Commissioners were transferred to the Corporation. The Paving and Soughing Committee became the Paving Committee, while the Improvement Committee retained its former name. Eight years later the Manchester General Improvement Act, 1851 (14 and 15 Vict. c.cxix) made the council the highway authority. The Surveyors of the Highways were thus absorbed by the new Paving, Sewering and Highways Committee.