Records of the Chelsea Waterworks Company, including papers relating to steam engines and other machinery; service records of workmen; sick pay regulations; deeds and other legal documents relating to company property; financial accounts; legal case records; Parliamentary papers; licences and historical notes.

Staff records of the Chelsea Waterworks Company, including register of employment; wages accounts and wages books.

Purchase records of the Chelsea Waterworks Company, including works day books; day books; Pipe Yard day book; stock books; and records relating to the delivery and consumption of coal.

Property records of the Chelsea Waterworks Company, comprising land purchase registers and rent books.

General records of the Chelsea Waterworks Company, including correspondence relating to water charges; printed circulars and forms; newspaper cuttings; and reference material.

Financial records of Chelsea Waterworks Company, including annual account books; annual reports; accounts ledgers; journals; cash books; bills books; revenue ledgers; meter accounts; and order books.

Corporate records of the Chelsea Waterworks Company, including Court of Directors minute books; General Board minute books; Committee of Accounts and Works minute books; Finance and Audit Committee minute books; Parliamentary Committee minutes; Secretary's report books; agenda books; correspondence; letter books; legal papers; register of stock and share holders; stock and share ledgers and other records; dividend books; registers of wills; bond records; contracts and specifications.

The Company papers contain correspondence, press cuttings, articles, statistics and plans mainly concerning the 1930 scheme which was defeated in the House of Commons by seven votes. Unfortunately most of the company’s early papers were destroyed in a fire in their office at London Bridge station in 1941.

Records from the Lee Conservancy Board Engineer's Office at Enfield Lock. The engineer appears also to have been responsible to the Lee Conservancy Catchment Board (for example, see Acc 2423/062).

The collection consists of nineteenth and twentieth century plans, papers and volumes concerning the Lee Conservancy Board, the Lee Conservancy Catchment Board, and the British Waterways Board, covering many aspects of maintenance work on waterways and administration. The papers comprise:

• Plans 1760-1954 (ACC 2423/P/0001-3786) A large proportion of the collection consists of plans, many reused with annotations. Items relate to repair work on sewers and buildings, improvements to rivers and pumping stations, and the purchase of land for new projects.
  • Parliamentary Plans 1840-1965 (ACC 2423/PP/001-041) Plans produced for or submitted for Parliamentary Sessions to illustrate forthcoming work on waterways, for example, sewerage work, or waterways affected by the construction of railways.
  • Specific Plans 1867-1964 (ACC 2423/R/001-076) A set of plans illustrating large projects, which seems to have been kept as a set distinct and separate from the main ACC 2423/P plan series by the placing of the letter `R' before each original plan number.
  • General Plans 1828-1974 (ACC 2423/X/001-300) A collection of more general plans relating to projects focusing on improvements to the Lea River and Navigation, the Stort River and Navigation, the Bow Back Rivers and the Grand Union Canal.
  • Ordnance Survey Maps 1838-1955 (ACC 2423/05/001-139) Maps used to plan forthcoming work, with frequent annotations, particularly for the drafting of courses for sewers.
  • Engineers' Reports and Letter Books 1858-1961 (ACC 2423/001-136) Sets of volumes and files recording reports, contracts and specifications, and other maintenance records.
  • Administrative and Legal Documents 1829-1977 (ACC 2423/AL/001-119) Administrative files relating to accidents and damage, together with inventories of assets, minutes of meetings, and engineers' reports. Legal documents include material on agreements for sale and tenancy, the conveyance of property, and contracts.
  • Engineering and Maintenance Records 1892-1978 (ACC 2423/EM/001-097) Records relating to the maintenance and improvement of waterways, including development plans, moratorium surveys, pumping records, and related graphs and operation sheets.

Typescript of unpublished autobiography of Wilfred Blackwell Beard, titled Along This Way, written c1966-1967, and covering his early life and education in Manchester, his work as an apprentice and journeyman patternmaker in Manchester, Stockport, Bradford and Newcastle, c1905-1929; his membership of the United Patternmakers' Association, from 1912, and his work as a full time Union Official from 1929-1966; and his membership of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Council, 1947-1967, particularly his year as Chairman of the TUC, 1955-1956.

Notebooks and diary including notebooks containing notes taken from lectures on physics and electricity given at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, illustrated with sketches and diagrams, 1902; pilotage notes, 1907; Diary while serving with HMS VIRAGO, a destroyer on the China station, including visits to Hong Kong, Japan and elsewhere in the Far East, 1908 and notebooks containing lecture notes on electricity and mechanics, illustrated with small sketches and diagrams. Inscriptions 'J E L Bashford, HMS Vernon, Aug. 1911.' MS. 5740 also includes notes on mine-sweeping and on torpedoes fired, 1916-1918.

Records of Associated Metropolitan Water Companies, comprising minutes and accounts of the Metropolitan Water Companies Meetings of Chairmen; minutes of sub committees including the Intercommunication Committee of Engineers of the Metropolitan Water Companies and the Committee for the Management of Works of Intercommunication; and correspondence.

Records of the Amalgamated Engineering Union. The collection has large gaps in the records. However, most of the material contains valuable details on engineers who were members of the union, and on those receiving benefits, for reasons including illness, accidents and deaths.

Records comprise papers of the Aeronautics Department of Imperial College, including notes on the department by Professor William Ernest Dalby, 1916, and Professor G Jackson, 1957; papers of the Aeronautics Committee and Advisory Committee on aeronautical education, 1909-1934; foundation of the Zaharoff Chair of Aviation, 1916-1923; correspondence of Professor Sir Richard Glazebrook, 1907-1923, Professor Sir Leonard Bairstow, 1920-1949, Professors Hall and Squire, 1945-1957; Rectors' correspondence, 1950-1981; research projects and reports, 1973- 1974; opening of the Donald Campbell Memorial laboratory, 1980-1981 (KA);
papers of the Meteorology Department, including a departmental history from 1920-1952, 1966; correspondence of Professor Sir Napier Shaw, 1920-1924; Professors Sir Gilbert Walker and Sir David Brunt, 1924-1935; the Rector Sir Patrick Linstead, 1955-1966; correspondence concerning the proposed Institute of Meteorology, 1937-1939, 1948; future of the department, 1968-1974 (KAM);
papers of the Physiological Flow Studies Unit, including reports, 1966; opening of the Charles Hayward Research Laboratory, 1976; papers relating to the Hayward foundation, 1973-1987; correspondence of the Rector concerning grants, 1966-1979; setting up and organisation of the unit, 1965-1979; association with the Aeronautics Department, 1967-1979; conferences (KAP);
press cuttings relating to the Centre for Biological and Medical Systems (KAPA).

Correspondence and papers of J H Stevenson relating to the Aeronautical Engineers' Association (AEA), 1943-1954, comprising:
Photocopies of political correspondence, 1946-1958, correspondents include Brendan Bracken (1950), James Callaghan (1954), Ernest Marples (1952), Edward Heath (1952, 1958), H Montgomery Hyde (1951), Robert Carr (1950), Edward Grigg, Lord Altrincham (1958), Harold Macmillan, [later Earl of Stockton] (1950), Sir Gerald Nabarro (1950), Anthony Barber (1958), Sir Herbert Butcher, (1956), Lord Shawcross (1950), Fenner Brockway (1950), Viscount Hinchingbrooke (1958), and Enoch Powell (1953); copy of letter from Stevenson to The Times, on rear facing seats for aircraft passengers, 1990; group photographs of AEA annual conferences, 1946-1947; printed papers including Rule Books, 1943-1949, Wings: Official Organ of the Aeronautical Engineers' Association, 1943-1954 (incomplete series); pamphlets, 1944-1948; ephemera including Stevenson's membership cards, 1944-1963, and badges.

A collection of local Acts of Parliament relating to Middlesex and Westminster, concerning building permission (including building bridges over the Thames at Richmond, Staines and Ealing); the powers of Justices of the Peace; the administration of the Militia; street maintenance; enclosures; and legacies, especially the disposition of estates and land after death.

Papers, 1773-1849, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising mortgage for messuage on Saint Martin's Lane; assignment of a lease for premises at Lamb's Conduit Street; order by Commissioners for Paving, Cleansing, Lighting, and Watching the streets of the Parish of Christ Church, Spitalfields and lease for cottages in Whitton.