Abergavenny Borough Records

Records of Abergavenny Improvement Commissioners, 1794-1911; Abergavenny Urban District Council, 1894-1900; Abergavenny Borough Council, 1859-1974; Abergavenny Burial Board, 1853-1941.

The town of Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, grew up around a castle (founded in about 1090) and market. The Abergavenny Improvement Act 1794 saw the establishing of Abergavenny Improvement Commissioners who assumed various local government functions and erected a new Market House. The Commissioners became an urban sanitary authority as a result of the Public Health Act 1872. Under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1894 the Improvement Commissioners were replaced by Abergavenny Urban District Council, an elected body made up of councillors and a chairman. Its responsibilities included sanitary services, sewerage, refuse collection, housing, streets, cemeteries, libraries, parks, controls on buildings such as petrol stations, and licensing of public entertainments. UDCs were administered by a number of committees and by appointed officers including a Clerk, Treasurer, Medical Officer of Health, Surveyor and Sanitary Inspector. In 1900 Abergavenny was awarded a charter of incorporation and the Urban District Council became a Borough Council, made up of a mayor, aldermen and councillors. Its administrative functions remained much the same. In 1974 Abergavenny Borough Council was abolished and its functions assumed by the new Monmouth District Council. Abergavenny Burial Board was established as a result of the Burial Act 1853 in order to create and manage local cemeteries.

To be supplied

No restrictions

No information found

Compiled by Rhys Jones for the ANW project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: Gwent Record Office, Abergavenny Improvement Commissioners, 1794-1894, Urban District Council, 1894-1900, Borough Council, 1901-1974, Burial Board, 1853-1941, catalogue; Jackson, W. Eric, The Structure of Local Government in England and Wales (London: Longmans, 1949); Hey, David, Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family History (Oxford, 1997); Abergavenny Market website (http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/market/), viewed 28 September 2005; National Register of Archives (www.nra.nationalarchives.gov.uk), viewed 28 September 2005.

Hard copies of the catalogue are available at Gwent Record Office and the National Register of Archives.

Usual copyright regulations apply

All records have been retained

Accruals are not expected

Further records are in Gwent Record Office, D.1967a.