Holborn and Finsbury Commission of Sewers

Identity area

Type of entity

Authorized form of name

Holborn and Finsbury Commission of Sewers

Parallel form(s) of name

    Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

      Other form(s) of name

        Identifiers for corporate bodies

        Description area

        Dates of existence

        History

        Early Commissioners of Sewers were solely concerned with land drainage and the prevention of flooding, not with the removal of sewage in the modern sense. In 1531 an Act of Sewers was passed which set out in great detail the duties and powers of Commissioners and governed their work until the 19th century. Gradually a permanent pattern emerged in the London area of seven commissions, five north and two south of the Thames, with, after the Great Fire, a separate commission for the City of London. The London commissioners had more extensive powers than those in other parts of the country; they had control over all watercourses and ditches within two miles of the City of London as well as newly constructed drains and sewers. After 1800 the London commissioners also obtained powers to control the formation of new sewers and house drains.

        On 21 May 1608 a Commission of Sewers was issued to Sir Nicholas Mosley 'maior of London' and others 'for Turnemyll Brooke and Fleets ditche in Lond. & Midd. and the Watercourse that runneth from Clerkenwell to holborne Bridge and soe into the Ryver of Thames' (Stow's Chronicle). Although this appears to be the first of the Holborn and Finsbury Commissions, the next covering this area appears to be that 'for the Cittie of London and two miles from the same' (1615) (Act 6 Hy. VI c.5) though this must have overlapped the area of the Westminster Commission. The later 17th century Commissions have the area of their jurisdiction described in similar terms and it is not until 1699 (Act 23 Hy. VIII c.5) that 'the Divisions of Holborne and Finsbury' are specifically mentioned.

        The jurisdiction of the Holborn and Finsbury Commission of Sewers included sewers in Shoreditch, Clerkenwell, Islington, Hoxton, Moorfields, Chancery Lane, Gray's Inn Road, Leather Lane, Saint Pancras, Camden, Gower Street, the Regent's Canal and the River Fleet.

        Places

        Legal status

        Functions, occupations and activities

        Mandates/sources of authority

        Internal structures/genealogy

        General context

        Relationships area

        Access points area

        Subject access points

        Place access points

        Occupations

        Control area

        Authority record identifier

        Institution identifier

        Rules and/or conventions used

        Status

        Level of detail

        Dates of creation, revision and deletion

        Language(s)

          Script(s)

            Sources

            Maintenance notes