Connecting with London
While we were waiting for the fire brigade to say we could go back into the archive centre I had a chat with Susan. After our visit to London on Tuesday we had been looking at the Acts relating to the Foundry Bridge amongst others. I emailed Susan to ask if we could look at the City Minutes Books for the date the Foundry Bridge Act was passed in 1810. The terms of the Act parliament were very specific and detailed a meeting which should take place. The meeting should consist of 5 commissioners (non of whom had financial interest in the bridge), it should take place at the Guildhall between 11am and 1pm on the 30th April 1810.
We looked at the City Minute books and Book of Assembly proceedings (basically the same, with the Book of proceedings in neater handwriting) and did find some references to the Act but not what we were hoping for. We hoped to find mention of that meeting that should have taken place but it was not to be seen. It was when Susan came in with box City Records 22a (3) that things really started buzzing. On opening there were collections of documents in bundles with references to Foundry Bridge – Bingo. With little time left and much excitement the bundles were unpacked. There were moments of silence when everyone was engrossed in reading these new finds, then statements said aloud pertaining to the content were shared within the group. A draft petition, an itemised bill of how much it had cost to put the act through parliament, a receipt for the same amount. Then an invitation was found, from James Marsh who had acted as Solicitor for the submission of the petition. It detailed the meeting we were looking for, Monday 30th at 12o’clock. What a find, and an amazing find at that. David from the Parliamentary archives was with us and on reading some of the material he realized that these were drafts and copies of documents that would have been sent to the House of Commons. Due to the fire at the House of Commons in 1834 (and all House of Commons records being burnt or severely water damaged) these records at Norfolk Record Office would be the only material pertaining to the drawing up, drafting processes and billing relating to the Act. It all seemed to come together in the last hours of our final meeting. It was a welcome and exciting final day of working together.
I’m just wondering if the Solicitor, James Marsh might just be connected to Marsh Solicitors on Queens Road in Norwich, its a long shot but worth an email to head office in London. Many of the these large companies have archives and archivists who may be able to provide a history of the company.
