Banff County Council

This material is held atAberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives (Aberdeenshire)

  • Reference
    • GB 228 ASBcty
  • Former Reference
    • GB 228 BCC
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1890 - 1975
  • Name of Creator
  • Physical Description
    • 168 volumes, 18 bundles, 48 files, 30 pamphlets, 43 booklets, 6 boxes, 100 items, 16 documents, 3 plans (c. 22 Linear Metres)

Scope and Content

ASBcty/1 Banff County Council: Minutes

ASBcty/2 Banff County Council: Committee Minutes

ASBcty/3 Banff County Council: District Council records

ASBcty/4 Banff County Council: Finance

ASBcty/5 Banff County Council: Education

ASBcty/6 Banff County Council: Public Health

ASBcty/7 Banff County Council: Planning

ASBcty/8 Banff County Council: Special District records

ASBcty/9 Banff County Council: Other series of records

Administrative / Biographical History

Banffshire County Council was established with other county councils by the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict., c.50). Banffshire was split into two, Upper (including Keith) and Lower (including Banff). County councils were made up of elected councillors and took over powers from the commissioners of supply, county road trusts, and local authorities set up under the Diseases of Animals Act. They also took over some administrative powers from the justices of the peace, but not their licensing or judicial powers. The responsibilities of the commissioners of supply for police matters were transferred to standing joint committees made up of commissioners of supply and county councillors. Parochial boards which had been responsible for duties under the Public Health Acts had such powers transferred to district committees of county councils. The 1889 Act made it compulsory for county councils to appoint full time county medical officers of health and sanitary inspectors.

Further reform of county councils came in the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929 (19 & 20 Geo V, c.25). The 1929 Act changed some of the functions of county councils and set up a system of district councils which had certain functions assigned to them by the county council.

County councils were abolished in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1973 (c.65). The powers of county councils were transferred to regional councils and district councils.

Chairman of County Council

Sir George MacPherson Grant bart of Ballindalloch (1890 - 1896)

Dr James Campbell (1896 - 1913)

E.A. Thurburn of Mayen (1913 - 1915)

William Forbes (1915 -1918)

Dr. George Cowie Grant of Dufftown (1919 - 1920)

Lieutenant-Colonel John James George DL of Macduff (1921 - 1930)

Colonel Sir George W. Abercromby (1930 - 1961)

Rev. George Arthur MacDonald Dickson (1961)

Colonel T.R. Gordon Duff (1961 - 1970)

James A.S. McPherson (1970 - 1975)

Access Information

Open

Archivist's Note

Collection fully catalogued in 2020/2021 using the ASActy reference. Sections of the collection had previously been catalogued using the references BC (the referencing system used by the SRO to cover Aberdeen County's records) and the collection also appears in SCAN as BCC. These former references have been included in the Alt Ref field. Other, previously uncatalogued material was incorporated into the collection in 2020/22.

Not identified in 2020-2022:

BC/9/5 Pension Recors (1908-19?)

BC/9/6: Chief Inspectors of Weights and Measures (1826-c.1970)

Related Material

Records of Banff County Council Medical and Health papers were transferred to the NHS Grampian Archives: these include Medical Officer of Health reports, 1891 - 1952 and 1968-1972; tuberculosis registers (register of cases, treatment, etc.), 1912 - 1986; registers of infectious diseases, 1950 - 1980. Details of these records can be seen in the University of Aberdeen Special Collections Centre catalogue at https://calm.abdn.ac.uk/archives under reference GRHB E4.

Minute Books for the Joint Board for Campbell Hospital, Portsoy, 1902-1948 (formerly BCC/8/1/1-2) and letter books from Banff Lunacy Board 1877-102(formerly BCC/8/2/1-2) were also transferred to the NHS Grampian Archives.

Banff Justices of the Peace Minute Book 1774-1794 (formerly BCC/10/1/1) was transferred to the SRO, now National Records of Scotland, in 1977 and has the reference JP5/2/1.