Board of Trade Maps and Plans

Maps and plans, 1849-1985, of industrial development and changes in the coastline of West Glamorgan, in particular Swansea, 1849-1985, Neath and Briton Ferry, 1857-1973, and Port Talbot, 1880-1967, and elsewhere in south Wales, 1863-1930; railway plans, 1873-1901. See also System of Arrangement field.

The Board of Trade and its successors were responsible for approving plans for works and improvements in relation to railways, docks, fisheries, dredging, sewerage, sea walls, piers and harbours. The maps and plans submitted to them show works constructed on Crown foreshore land and were used as legal proof of Crown ownership of the foreshore and to regulate foreshore development to provide for safe navigation. The General Department of the Board of Trade administered this from 1840 but was amalgamated with other departments at intervals up to the 1980s, by which time authority rested with the Department of Transport for works such as piers, slipways and bridges and with the Commissioners of the Crown Estates for the general foreshore.

Arranged into the following: Bristol Channel and Swansea Bay; Loughor estuary; Gower coast; Mumbles; Swansea; Neath and Briton Ferry; Port Talbot; railway plans; Mid Glamorgan area; Carmarthenshire; Pembrokeshire.

No restrictions

It is the policy of the West Glamorgan Archive Service to withhold the names of depositors.

Compiled by Rhys Jones for the ANW project. The following source was used in the compilation of this description: West Glamorgan Archive Service, Maps and plans from the Board of Trade and its successors (D/D PRO/BT).

Hard copies of the catalogue are available at West Glamorgan Archive Service.

Usual copyright regulations apply.

Assessed by the Public Record Office (now The National Archives) under the Public Records Acts. All records received from the Public Record Office have been retained.

Accruals are not expected

Related items are at The National Archives