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Humber Conservancy Board

Records of the Humber Conservancy Board: Humber Steamship Owners' Conference minutes 1882-1891, plans and charts of the river 1905 and 1930-1931, dredgings report 1909, annual engineer's reports 1923-1942.

1882-1942

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These records are available immediately for research

The Humber Conservancy Commissioners were incorporated in an Act of 1868, although they had originally been set up in 1852. Various Acts established their responsibilities and powers, for example to make improvements or borrow money. An 1871 Act extended their 999-year lease of the riverbed to the lower reaches of the rivers Ouse and Trent. From 1888, the administration of the ports of Goole and Hull were combined under the Conservancy Board. An Act in 1907 dissolved the Humber Conservancy Commissioners and replaced them with the Humber Conservancy Board. They controlled the upper River Humber and their powers extended into the River Trent. In 1908 Trinity House transferred responsibility for pilotage on the river to the Board. The new body was also a Local Lighthouse Authority and a Buoyage and Beaconage Authority. Part of their work involved taking regular soundings of the riverbed and establishing the best navigable channel. In 1909 the engineer Sir William Matthews investigated the condition of the areas under the control of the Board and the total cost of the necessary improvements was calculated. The outbreak of World War One meant the deferral of any action, but nothing was done after the war either. For further information on the Humber Conservancy Board see Edward Paget-Tomlinson's 'The Illustrated History of Canals & River Navigations' and Charles Hadfield's 'The Canals of Yorkshire and North East England'.

It has not been possible to ascertain any original structure of record-keeping from the small number of records held for this company. The fonds has therefore been arranged in chronological order.