Description

Admin History:

The Hull and Myton Improvement Commissioners were established by the Hull and Myton Improvement Act of 1810 (50 Geo. III, c.41).

Under the Act the Improvement Commissioners were empowered to deal thoroughly with the new streets in its area by putting in drains, paving the surface and erecting lamps. Once put in order the street had to be kept in a good state by the surveyors of the highways, but the commissioners continued to cleanse and water them and provide a rudimentary police force in the form of night watchmen.

Prior to the establishment of local improvement commissioners (the first being the Sculcoates Improvement Commissioners in 1801) the Corporation had taken care of the streets within the town but, by the middle of the eighteenth century it found itself unable to maintain them to the standards required. A local act provided for the appointment of assessors with powers to levy a rate and an obligation to keep the streets clean and properly lit. This was a start but it only applied to the old town and it came into force just as Hull was spreading outside its ancient boundaries. In the new estates the problems were far greater than in the old town. Not only were there no lamps, there were no police officers, save the village constable, and the question of cleaning the streets did not arise. Unless occupiers paved the front of their houses there were quagmires where the streets should have been. To tackle these problems an authority far more powerful was needed hence the appointment of the local improvement commissioners.

The Hull and Myton Improvement Commissioners lost their police powers to the Corporation under the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 and were superseded by the Hull Board of Health in 1851.

Description:

Minutes: signed minutes 1810-1852; draft minutes and reports 1810-1820; reports from finance, lamps, drainage and various ad hoc committees 1811-1850

Cases and opinions 1811-44

Litigation 1814-17

Applications for posts and bonds given by employees 1810-46

Deeds relating to property, easements etc. 1811-46

Bonds and contracts for the lighting and the supply of lighting equipment 1811-30

Bonds and contracts for the supply of materials for and the execution of paving, drainage and cleansing and similar works 1810-51

Adjudications by the surveyor and seven assistants for the apportionment of the cost of local improvements (drainage, paving etc.) among the beneficiaries 1810-47

Miscellaneous papers relating to lighting 1810-44

Certificates from the Commissioners to the Surveyors of the Highways that the roads they have made are in future to be repaired as highways 1812-50

Warrants from the Commissioners to the Assessors appointed under the 1762 Improvement Act giving instructions with respect to lighting and watching the old town 1810-24

Coal accounts giving monthly and annual figures for the number of vessels, the tonnage, the number of chaldrons and the tax levied 1826-1850

Correspondence 1811-51, Balance sheets 1825, 1840-51 Mortgages and associated documents 1810-13.

Certificates from the Commissioners showing money required for various purposes and warrants issued by the Mayor and Aldermen for its collection 1810-45

Miscellaneous documents c. 1810-c. 1851