Records relating to Bath City Council's responsibility for water supply

The Corporation's involvement with supplying water to the city dates back to at least the late thirteenth century, when they joined with the Priory in supplying piped water to the Priory and a small number of city streets. There is evidence of serious investment by the Corporation in the maintenance of the water network from at least the sixteenth century. This supply of water was a significant attraction to visitors to the city, even though it was initially limited to the city centre, with other areas dependent on private water supplies. However, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards the Council took advantage of general legislation as well as promoting private Acts of Parliament in order to purchase and lease new supplies of water and install water mains. By the early twentieth century it provided a water supply to the whole of the city. In the mid-1970s Wessex Water, one of ten new regional Water Authorities, took over control of the city water supply.

The records are arranged as follows:
BC/7/1/1 - Town Clerks general paperwork relating to the provision of water supplies in Bath
BC/7/1/2 - Reports relating to Waterworks in the City of Bath
BC/7/1/3 - Records of the Bath Waterworks Act 1846
BC/7/1/4 - Records of the Bath Bill 1866
BC/7/1/5 - Records of the Bath Waterworks Act 1870
BC/7/1/6 - Records of the Acquisition of Private Waterworks
BC/7/1/7 - Town Clerks Papers relating to the Corporation of Bath's opposition to the West Gloucester Water Bill 1887
BC/7/1/7a - Records of the Opposition to the North East Somerset Water Bill 1887
BC/7/1/8 - Records relating to the construction of the Monkswood Reservoir
BC/7/1/9 - Records of the Bath Corporation Water Act 1903
BC/7/1/10 - Copy Deeds and Easements of the Bath City Waterworks
BC/7/1/11 - Administrative Registers of the Bath City Waterworks
BC/7/1/12 - Waterworks Engineer's Filing
BC/7/1/13 - Records of the Bath City Council Waterworks Office
BC/7/1/14 - Waterworks Office Filing used by Wessex Water during the transition to Water Authorities
BC/7/1/15 - Correspondence files of the Waterworks Committee of the Bath City Council
BC/7/1/16 - Correspondence files of the Waterworks and Public Works Committee of the Bath City Council