Welsh Office and predecessors: Local Government and Sewerage Division and predecessors:...

BD 38

1942-1976

This series comprises unregistered folders created by the Ministry of Housing and local government and the Welsh Office containing Returns of Water Undertakings (Engineering (Eng.) 100 forms), carrying returns of information relating to water quality and quantity supplied by water undertakings, and related maps, correspondence and local water acts and orders.

The returns relate to Welsh local authorities and water boards, and provide an inventory of the sources of supply, treatment and pumping plant and balancing and service reservoirs, together with details of relevant local enactments, the statutory area of supply with population and the quantity of water supplied daily.

The folders containing each form also contain one or more 1-inch Ordnance Survey sheet sections showing the locations of the various installations and the watermain network. Also in the folders are various reports by the Departments' Engineering Inspectorate, miscellaneous correspondence and copies of local water acts and orders. In the mid-1960s the details shown on the individual 1-inch map sheets were plotted on to a series of 21 standard 1-inch OS sheets for the whole of Wales and these sheets are included in the series.

Due to the regrouping of water undertakings into county or area boards that took place between the late 1950s and early 1970s, the folders were amalgamated accordingly. This work had not been completed for the Gwent, West Glamorgan, and Wrexham and East Denbighshire undertakings when, in 1974, following the Water Act 1973, existing undertakings were dissolved and their functions transferred to the Welsh National Water Development Authority (WNWDA). In these three cases the relevant folders are listed under the name of the undertaking into which they had been amalgamated and which existed immediately before the creation of the WNWDA.

Engineering 100 forms relating to England can be found in AT 19

Public Record(s)

English

• Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Engineering Inspectorate, 1951-1970
• Welsh Office, Local Government, Water and Sewerage Division, 1965-1977

81 files and flat sheets

Open

Topics

Maps and plans

Resources

Sewerage

The Water Act 1945 empowered the minister responsible for water to require regular returns on water quality and quantity from suppliers. When the Ministry of Housing and Local Government took over these responsibilities it established an Engineering Inspectorate to carry out surveys which were made on Eng.100 forms, Returns of Water Undertakings.

In 1965 these responsibilities passed to the Local Government, Water and Sewerage Division of the Welsh Office.

Considerable regrouping of water undertakings into county or area boards took place between the late 1950s and early 1970s. In 1974, following the Water Act 1973, existing undertakings were dissolved and (with the exception of Montgomeryshire) their functions transferred to the Welsh National Water Development Authority (WNWDA), one of ten such authorities created by the Act. The undertaking of the Herefordshire Water Board was also transferred to the WNWDA. The undertaking of the Montgomeryshire Water Board was transferred to the Severn-Trent Water Authority.