BW174

British Transport Commission: South Wales Docks: Civil Engineer's Office

Records of the British Transport Commission: South Wales Docks: Civil Engineer's Office: Legal, administrative, financial and traffic records 1949-1961, plans concerning the Monmouthshire and Brecon canals 1879-mid 20th century and plans concerning Swansea Canal mid 20th century.

1879-1961

BW174

These records are available immediately for research

South Wales Docks was a division of the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive of the British Transport Commission that was formed as a public authority on 1 January 1948 under the Transport Act of 1947. It was one of four docks divisions and managed docks at Newport, Cardiff and Penarth, Barry, Port Talbot and Swansea, as well as the Swansea, Monmouthshire and Brecon & Abergavenny canals. The chief docks manager was based at Pierhead Building, Cardiff along with staff and estates officers. Each dock had a dock manager and there were dock engineers based in the West at Swansea and in the East at Barry and Cardiff. The Transport Act of 1953 separated the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive into British Transport Waterways and British Transport Docks. South Wales Docks remained as a division of British Transport Docks but retained control only of the docks in South Wales, the Swansea, Monmouthshire and Brecon & Abergavenny canals having passed to the Welsh District of the South Western Division of British Transport Waterways. The Transport Act of 1962 abolished the British Transport Commission; British Transport Docks became the British Transport Docks Board until 1983 when it became Associated British Ports.

It has not been possible to ascertain the complete original structure of record-keeping from the records held for this company. The fonds has therefore been arranged into series by subject, which is how some of the records could have originally been kept. The company's legal, administrative, financial and traffic records have been placed first, followed by plans concerning the Monmouthshire and Brecon canals and then plans concerning Swansea Canal. The records within the first series have been arranged chronologically while keeping records relating to each other together. This means that some records may fall slightly out of the chronological sequence. The remaining two series have been divided into subseries - the arrangement of these is described at series-level.