Description

Admin History:

The Sculcoates Improvement Commissioners were appointed under a local act of 1801 [Act of Parliament for paving, cleansing, lighting, watching and regulating the streets, squares, lanes and other public passages and places within the parish of Sculcoates in the East Riding of the County of York, and for removing and preventing nuisances, annoyances, encroachments and obstructions; and for licensing and regulating Hackney coaches, chairs, porters, coal carriers and water carriers, trucks, carts and other carriages within the said parish 41 Geo. III.Cap.30].

The Sculcoates 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 formation of the Sculcoates Improvement Commissioners 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 Sculcoates Improvement Commissioners.

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Improvement Commissioners lost their police powers to the Corporation under the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 and were superseded by the Hull Board of Health in 1851.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

Documents relating to the Sculcoates Improvement Act 1801, documents relating to the Sculcoates Commissioners 1801-1851, administrative records 1822-1851, miscellaneous records 1808-1824 & 1826-1833, tenders 1837-1840, documents and contracts relating to the Gas Company 1834-1844, documents relating to the water supply 1826, legal records 1803-1840 and financial records 1802-1852.