Records of the Northampton Electric Light and Power Company Limited, 1936-1948

The collection comprises:

• Signed minute book of general and board meetings, December 1936-January 1947 (BEN 1).
• Signed minute book of board meetings, January 1947-March 1948 (BEN 2).
• Signed minute book of general meetings, March 1947-March 1948 (BEN 3).

The minute books record the activities, finance and share ownership of the company. Only BEN 1 contains significant references to the company's operational activity. This series of minute books is incomplete. If earlier volumes survive, their location has not been ascertained.

The date when the Northampton Electric Light and Power Company Limited started has not been ascertained but its fifty-ninth annual general meeting was held in 1948, suggesting a start date of about 1890. The company was closely associated with the Rushden and District Electric Supply Company Limited and the Wellingborough Electric Supply Company Limited. In the 1940s, a number of the same directors sat on the boards of these companies and meetings were held on the same day in the Northampton firm's offices at 25 Bridge Street. The company supplied electricity to Northampton, its surrounding area and to some villages in north Buckinghamshire. The company was nationalised with the rest of the electric power industry in 1948. Its activities were taken over by the East Midlands Electricity Board.

The minute books have been sorted chronologically.

ACCESS: Accessible to all registered readers subject to restrictions concerning personal information.

REPROGRAPHIC: Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

This description is the only finding aid available for the collection. Copyright in the description belongs to The University of Nottingham.

COPYRIGHT: Permission to make published use of the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk). The Department will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but this is often difficult and the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the person wishing to publish.

LANGUAGE: English

The fate of the bulk of the company's archive is not known. The present collection consists only of minute books, which survived amongst the records of the East Midlands Electricity Board, and was given to The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections in April 2000 by PowerGen.