Stevenage Development Corporation (Commission for the New Towns)

Stevenage was the first designated New Town, following a draft Designation Order on 1 August 1946, and the Stevenage Development Corporation was formed under the New Towns Act, in the same year. A draft Master Plan was produced in summer 1946, but due to local opposition and differences of opinion with the Ministry of Town and Country planners and Corporation Planners, it was not until 1949 that a revised Master Plan was put forward for public enquiry, being endorsed in February 1950. This plan became the basis for the development of Stevenage as a new Town, with further revisions of a Master Plan in 1955, a draft Master Plan in 1961, a Master Plan in 1966, and a Master Plan Updating in 1972 and in 1978. By 1975 it was agreed that the Corporation would be wound up in early 1980 [by a Transfer and Dissolution Order, 1980] with a staged transfer of assets, including housing assets to Stevenage Borough Council and non housing assets to the Commission for New Towns.

In Nov 1982 the Commission closed its Hertfordshire Offices and certain of its records which were no longer required for current administrative purposes were transferred to the County Record Office (now Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, HALS) and also Stevenage Museum. Some of these have subsequently been transferred to HALS; others remain at the Museum.