Focus on
Bringing the Bethnal Green disaster to light
The government tried to keep the details of the Bethnal Green Tube shelter disaster of 1943 private – but a court case brought the terrible story to light.
Series
Road Board, Correspondence and Papers
Catalogue reference: MT 38
What's it about?
MT 38
This series consists of files of the Road Board, continued in the Ministry of Transport.
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
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MT 38
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Title (The name of the record)
- Road Board, Correspondence and Papers
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Date (When the record was created)
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1909-1928
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Description (What the record is about)
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This series consists of files of the Road Board, continued in the Ministry of Transport.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
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Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
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English
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
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47 file(s)
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Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
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From 1966 to 1967 Ministry of Transport
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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The Road Board was constituted in May 1910 under the provisions of the Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909 which empowered the Board to construct new roads and to make grants from the Road Improvement Fund to local authorities for road-laying and the improvement of existing roads.
The most pressing problem, with the growing importance of the motor car, was road surfacing, and the Board concentrated on strengthening the road crusts and the alleviation of mud and dust nuisance by tarring.
With the outbreak of the First World War, expenditure on normal construction and maintenance was curtailed, but the Board arranged the laying of numerous roads for military and other essential purposes. This work was undertaken on behalf of the other interested Departments, and about £4½ million was repaid to the Road Improvement Fund by the Admiralty, Air Ministry, Ministry of Munitions, Board of Trade and War Office on account of the work done.
After the War, the Board was responsible for the preparation of the scheme whereby road works to the value of £40 million were undertaken by ex-servicemen and others who would otherwise have been unemployed. In 1919 the functions of the Board were absorbed into the newly-formed Ministry of Transport.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C11087/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
156,093 records
Within the department: MT
Records created or inherited by the Transport Ministries, and by related bodies,...
You are currently looking at the series: MT 38
Road Board, Correspondence and Papers
You may be interested in
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Focus on
The Bethnal Green Tube shelter disaster
On one tragic night in March 1943 in Bethnal Green, East London, 173 people lost their lives taking shelter from German bombing as the air raid sirens sounded. -
Record revealed
A letter by the women workers at Fords of Dagenham
A handwritten letter written by sewing machinists working at Dagenham car plant who famously went on strike for equal wages in the late 1960s.
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