Business Archives Sources and History
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NUMBER 88 Business Archives Sources and History Number 88 November 2004 BUSINESS ARCHIVES NOVEMBER 2004 BUSINESS ARCHIVES COUNCIL CHARITY NO. 313336 ISSN 0007-6538 BUSINESS ARCHIVES COUNCIL Corporate Patrons The work of the Business Archives Council is supported by subscriptions and donations from its corporate, institutional and individual members. The Council is especially grateful to its Corporate Patrons, who have generously agreed to support the Council at significantly more than the basic level of subscription: HSBC Holdings plc, ING Bank NV (London), Lloyds TSB Group, News International plc, Rio Tinto plc, The Rothschild Archive, and R Twining & Co. Major Benefactors The Business Archives Council is also grateful to the following major benefactors for their support for current and previous work: Academic sponsorship Economic History Society (1995 - 2000), University of the West of England (1995 - 2000) Advisory Service Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (1974 - 1997), J Sainsbury plc (1996 - 2000) Annual Conference accommodation British Bankers Association (2001), Cable & Wireless plc (1998), Channel 4 Television (2000), The Newsroom – Guardian and Observer Archive and Visitor Centre (2003) Meetings and training accommodation The Boots Company plc (1998 - 2000), NatWest Group (1998 - 1999), News International plc (1998 - 2000), Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (1974 - 2003), R Twining & Co (1974 - 2000) Surveys of business archives British Railways Board, survey of records for the Railway Heritage Committee (1997 - 1999); Economic and Social Research Council, company archives survey (1980 - 1985); The Wellcome Trust, surveys of records of the pharmaceutical industry (1995 - 1997) and veterinary medicine (1998 - 2001) Wadsworth Prize for Business History receptions Bank of England (1996), Bank of Scotland (1995), HSBC Holdings plc (2003), ING Barings (1997), Institution of Electrical Engineers (2001), Lloyds TSB Group plc (1999), Midland Bank plc (1994), NM Rothschild & Sons Limited (2000), Prudential Corporation (1998) THE BUSINESS ARCHIVES COUNCIL BUSINESS ARCHIVES COUNCIL CHARITY NO. 313336 The objects of the Council are to promote the preservation of business records of historical importance, to supply advice and information on the administration and management of both archives and modern records, and to encourage interest in the history of business in Britain. The Council’s publishing programme includes Business Archives, which is published half yearly, and a Newsletter which appears quarterly. Business Archives. Principles and Practice covers technical aspects of managing archives and modern records. Business Archives. Sources and History considers business archives as source material for historians. Other Council publications include Managing Business Archives and A Guide to Tracing the History of a Business. In recent years surveys of the archives of brewing, banking and shipbuilding have been published, as has a survey of the archives of 1,000 of the oldest registered companies in Britain. The Council is a registered charity and derives much of its income from the annual subscriptions of its members. These include business organisations, libraries and other institutions, and individual archivists, records managers, business people and historians. An annual conference gives members the opportunity to meet, as well as to hear papers on themes of current interest. For details about membership and about the work of the Council generally, please write to the Business Archives Council, c/o Fiona Maccoll, Records Manager, Rio Tinto plc, 6 St James’s Square, London SW1Y 4LD. Prospective articles (authors should apply for notes for contributors in the first instance) together with comments on Business Archives are welcome and should be sent either to Mike Anson, Editor, Business Archives. Sources and History, Bank of England, Threadneedle Street London, EC2R 8AH or to Lucy Jones, Editor, Business Archives. Principles and Practice, BT Group Archives, Third Floor, Holborn Telephone Exchange, 268-270 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EE. The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Business Archives Council or of the Editor. No responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of the material in this journal can be accepted by the Business Archives Council or by the Editor or by the writers of the articles. c 2004 Business Archives Council and Contributors Printed by Manor Creative, Units 7 & 8, Edison Road, Highfield Industrial Estate, Hampden Park, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN23 6PT Wadsworth Prize: Winners, 1978-2002 v Business Archive sources for late Georgian building firms Archives Christopher Powell 1 Sources Two men of industry, many businesses: The Soho firms of Matthew Boulton and James Watt, as revealed by the and Archives of Soho Tim Procter 13 History Sources on communities of British manufacturing plants and their activities Peter Scott 25 Contents Bibliography in business history 2003 Edited by Richard Hawkins 31 Number 88 Business records deposited in 2003 November 2004 Edited by Mike Anson 47 Reviews 69 BUSINESS ARCHIVES COUNCIL 101 Whitechapel High St. London E1 7RE, UK CLIFF EDWARDS Reviews Railway Records: A Guide to Sources Terry Gourvish DAVID T. HAWKINGS Number 88 Fire Insurance Records for Family and Local Historians November 2004 1696 to 1920 Julia Sheppard MARTIN FRANSMAN Telecoms in the Internet Age: From Boom to Bust to …? Roy Edwards JENIFER ROBERTS Glass. The Strange History of the Lyne Stephens Fortune Edwin Green JOHN F. WILSON and ANDREW POPP Industrial clusters and regional business networks in England, 1750-1970 Mike Anson WADSWORTH PRIZE: WINNERS, 1978-2002 In 2003, Lenore Symons retired as co-ordinator of the Wadsworth Prize for Business History. Lenore had undertaken the task for nearly 20 years and it is appropriate to mark this by including a complete list of the 25 winners to date. 2002 – MARTIN FRANSMAN, Telecoms in the Internet age: From Boom to Bust to…? (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 2001 – MARGARET ACKRILL and LESLIE HANNAH, Barclays: The Business of Banking 1690-1966. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 2000 – GEOFFREY JONES, Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 1999 – DAVID KYNASTON, City of London, Volume 3: Illusions of Gold, 1914-45. (London: Chatto & Windus) 1998 – NIALL FERGUSON, The World’s Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild. (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson) 1997 – YOUSSEF CASSIS, Big Business: The European Experience in the Twentieth Century. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 1996 – RICHARD SAVILLE, Bank of Scotland: A History 1695-1995. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press) 1995 – GEOFFREY TWEEDALE, Steel City: Entrepreneurs of Strategy and Technology in Sheffield 1743-1993. (Oxford: Clarendon Press) 1994 – T. R. GOURVISH and R. G. WILSON, British Brewing Industry 1830-1980. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1993 – JOHN HATCHER, The History of the British Coal Industry. Volume 1, Before 1700: Towards the Age of Coal. (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 1992 – OLIVER WESTALL, The Provincial Insurance Company, 1903-1938: Family Markets and Competitive Growth. (Manchester: Manchester University Press) 1991 – CHARLES HARVEY and JON PRESS, William Morris: Design and Enterprise in Victorian England. (Manchester: Manchester University Press) 1990 – SIR PETER THOMPSON, Sharing the Success: The Story of NFC. (London: Collins) 1989 – MARTIN CAMPBELL KELLY, ICL: A Business and Technical History. (Oxford: Clarendon Press) 1988 – CHRISTINE MACLEOD, Inventing the Industrial Revolution. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1987 – STEVEN TOLLIDAY, Business, Banking and Politics: The Case of British Steel 1918-1939. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press) 1986 – ROY CHURCH, The History of the British Coal Industry. Volume 3: Victorian Preeminence. (Oxford: Clarendon Press) 1985 – RICHARD DAVENPORT-HINES, Dudley Docker, The Life and Times of a Trade Warrior. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1984 - MICHAEL W. FLINN, The History of the British Coal Industry. Volume 2: 1700- 1830: The Industrial Revolution. (Oxford: Clarendon Press) 1983 – D. J. ROWE, Lead Manufacturing in Britain: A History. (London: Croom Helm) 1982 – R. W. FERRIER, The History of the British Petroleum Company. Volume 1: The Developing Years (1901-1932). (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1981 – CHARLES E. HARVEY, The Rio Tinto Company: An Economic History of a Leading International Mining Concern. (Penzance: Alison Hodge) 1980 – D. C. COLEMAN, Courtauld’s: An Economic and Social History. (Oxford: Clarendon Press) 1979 – PETER PAYNE, Colvilles and the Scottish Steel Industry. (Oxford: Clarendon Press) 1978 – D. K. FIELDHOUSE, Unilever Overseas: The Anatomy of a Multinational. (London: Croom Helm) (Listed by year of publication. The award is generally made the following year) Business Archives Sources and History Number 88 November 2004 edited by Mike Anson reviews editor Mike Anson Published by BUSINESS ARCHIVES COUNCIL 101 Whitechapel High St. London E1 7RE UK 1 ARCHIVE SOURCES FOR LATE GEORGIAN BUILDING FIRMS CHRISTOPHER POWELL Cardiff University A part of the field of construction history is the study of early building firms. Some examples of nineteenth century firms have been researched, typically larger ones which undertook major or prestigious works. However the smaller the firm and more remote