Davis, Champion and Payne, chartered surveyors, estate agents and auctioneers, Stroud.

This collection comprises the records of the Stroud office. Similar files and papers for Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge branch offices are held at Dursley, although all the firm's accounts are administered through Stroud.

Unfortunately the firm's earlier records were destroyed by a fire at the turn of the century, although some old sale particulars and notices have now been collected and preserved from other sources (see D4586). Other gaps in the records in the 1930s and early 1940s may be explained by the clearance of the attic as a precaution against war-time incendiary devices (the records had to be moved to a damp basement). However, the present deposit provides a very full picture of the work of a provincial practice in the 20th century.

The main business record is the series of dockets, of which about 5% were selected for preservation. On Mr. Fisher's advice, files were retained relating to major properties, business and industry and local personalities, and a sample relating to minor routine work. The firm's war-time duties, principally concerned with requisitioning property, are also well documented.

The sales records give a detailed account of fluctuations in the property market, the break-up of large estates, the growth of popular residential areas and so on. Property registers dating from the 1930s are still held at the Stroud office.

An unexpected group of records are those relating to the management of two local charitable institutions, St. Michael's Home at Bussage, and St. George's Training School, Oldbury House, Stonehouse, in which Mr. Fisher was concerned in an honorary capacity.

Docket registers, 1913-64

Docket files, 1919-74

[Samples preserved]

Property sales : particulars and conditions of sale, 1888-1939

Property sales : printed sale particulars, 1889-1968

Property sales : auctioneer's particulars, 1898-1964

Property sales : auction books, 1913-58

Chattel sales : auction accounts, 1896-1944

Chattel sales : auction sales catalogues, 1906-62

Leases and agreements, 1857-1943

Inventories, valuations and schedules of condition, 1919-71

Estate management files, 1940s-50s

[Samples preserved]

Town and Country Planning Act files, 1940s-60s

Building and development plans, 1925-68

Estate accounts, 1900-48

Honorary work, 1907-59

[Weeded]

Deeds, etc., 1688-1931

Office accounts, 1896-1970

[Samples preserved]

Partnership and premises, 1900s-72

Agent's working notes, 1924-62

Presscuttings, etc., 1920s-83

Reference aids and statistics, c.1874-1970s

The catalogue has been arranged according to the various series of records created by the firm, giving priority within the list to the main series.

<span class="wrapper"><p>See also D4586 Gloucestershire Record Office</p> <p>(see D1405/7/8 Gloucestershire Record Office)</p> <p>(D1405/18/12 Gloucestershire Record Office)</p></span>

Printed material is immediately available for research, but other papers are closed for 30 years unless written permission to consult them is obtained from the depositors.

Messrs. Davis Champion & Payne, chartered surveyors, estate agents and auctioneers, 10 Kendrick Street, Stroud

Samuel Davis established the firm in Minchinhampton in 1772, and successive generations of the family carried it on through the 19th century. Llewellyn C. Champion (one of the Davis' nephews) and Henry A. Payne became partners in 1899 and 1923 respectively.

There was a branch office in Nailsworth, where a monthly cattle market was held, in the latter part of the last century. 'Calling-in rooms' at Dursley, Tetbury and Wotton-under-Edge were used in Mr. Champion's time, and in the late 1940s, Dursley and Wotton-under-Edge branch offices were set up with full-time managers. An office at Chipping Sodbury also dates from this later period.

These and other details of the firm's history to 1972 are to be found in its Bi-centenary Memoir.

In September 1983, the firm became a subsidiary of Messrs. Hartnell, Taylor & Cook of Bristol. Major building works in the Stroud office premises that year entailed the clearing of attic and basement rooms where the firm's Stroud records were stored. A retired partner and consultant, Mr. Geoffrey Fisher, assisted by an archivist, undertook the selection of records to be preserved at Gloucestershire Record Office.