Cataloguing South Gloucestershire Councils

The records of the predecessor bodies to South Gloucestershire, Northavon Council and Kingswood Council have recently been catalogued and are fully available to view by the public.

Black and white photographs of Thornbury Castle and Church on the left and Thornbury Castle on the right. (Ref DC/NA/S/15/3)

Northavon Council was a unitary local government body that existed between 1974 and 1996 in the county of Avon. The district was formed by the Local Government Act of 1972 as part of a country-wide reform of local authorities. The name “Northavon” was invented in 1973 and denotes the district’s position in the county of Avon. Under the reorganisation, the area surrounding the cities of Bath and Bristol were formed into the new county of Avon, named after the river running through the area. Following a review by the Local Government Commission for England Northavon council was abolished on 1 April 1996. Unitary councils are where there is only one tier of local government providing all the local services in contrast to the normal two-tier arrangement of district and county councils. This means that in total a unitary authority provides such services as education, transport, planning, fire and public safety, social care, libraries, waste management, trading standards, rubbish collection, recycling, council tax collections, housing, and planning applications.

Kingswood District Council also came into existence following local government reorganisation in 1974. It was a non-metropolitan district of the County of Avon and included the town of Kingswood.  The council was formed by merging the Kingswood and Mangotsfield Urban District Councils with the Warmley Rural District Council of Gloucestershire. Spread across an area of 11831 acres, the district served a population of 78,210 people in 1974. The Council achieved borough status in 1987. It was a proud and prosperous borough, with a motto of “Vigilando Custodimus” or “We are the watchful custodians.” As a custodian, Kingswood Borough aimed to take care of the welfare of its people and ensure their safety and security. Its local government system aimed to be transparent and efficient, with a dedicated team of public servants looking after the interests of the community. Kingswood Museum, a proud symbol of the borough’s rich heritage, stood as a testament to its commitment to preserving its history and culture.

In 1996 following a review by the Local Government Commission for England both Northavon and Kingswood and indeed the whole county of Avon were abolished. The two councils were merged to form the unitary authority of South Gloucestershire.

These two collections are a fascinating and irreplaceable resource for the history of this geographical area. The Northavon collection consists of records relating to committee meetings, the governance of the council, legal records, records relating to the council’s communication with the public, records relating to local taxation, records relating to planning and economic development and maps and plans. Out of these the most numerous are committee records and planning records.

Photograph album put together to commemorate the jubilee visit of Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh to Northavon on the 8^th of August 1977. (Ref: DC/NA/S/15/5)

In contrast the Kingswood collection consists of documents relating to committee meetings, the reorganisation of the local authority, planning and tree preservation orders. Again unsurprisingly, the most numerous records are committee records and planning records. The collections have been given the codes DC/NA for Northavon and DC/KI for Kingswood.

Retailing in Kingswood Borough: a Comprehensive Survey of the Main Centres, published in August 1993. This survey provides a comprehensive picture of retailing within Kingswood’s four main shopping areas of Kingswood, Staple Hill, Downend and Hanham, as well as the out-of-town shopping centre of Longwell Green. (Ref: DC/KI/S/5/1/8)

Archives are our collective and personal memory, a unique and irreplaceable part of our heritage. They contain reliable evidence of past actions and decisions, of the reasons for them and of their impact on those affected. As well as their cultural value, archives are about long-term accountability. They provide the evidence required to protect people’s rights and seek remedies when necessary. They enable the rights to freedom of expression and information through journalistic and academic expression, historical research and public access to official documents and are an essential resource for business, writers, family historians, researchers, and historians.

The cataloguing of these unique collections will therefore enable the public to better hold these bodies, even though they no longer exist, to account for the decisions they made in the court of history and public opinion.

Written by Jon Shepherd, Community Cataloguing Archivist and Jenny Rutland, Community Cataloguing Archivist