Catalogue description Great Yarmouth Port and Haven

Y/PH/1 - 79. Minutes

Y/PH/80 - 99. Survey Reports

Y/PH/100 - 124. Engineers' Reports

Y/PH/125 - 132. Officers' Reports

Y/PH/133 - 146. Letter Books

Y/PH/147 - 157. Acts of Parliament

Y/PH/158 - 169. Tide Logs

Y/PH/170 - 248. Financial

Y/PH/249 - 368. Tolls and Registration

Y/PH/369 - 875. Legal and Parliamentary

Y/PH/876 - 942. Byelaws

Y/PH/943 - 975. Handbills

Y/PH/976 - 1033. Agreements and Contracts

Y/PH/1034 - 1134. Correspondence and Misc.

Y/PH/1135 - 1137. Yarmouth Corporation

Y/PH/1138 - 1165. Printed

Y/PH/1166 - 1721. Maps and Plans: Yarmouth and Breydon Water

Y/PH/1722 - 1780. Maps and Plans: River Bure

Y/PH/1781 - 1800. Maps and Plans: River Yare

Y/PH/1801 - 1854. Maps and Plans: River Waveney

Y/PH/1855 - 1912. Plans: Machinery and Installations

Y/PH/1913 - 1949. Plans by Consultant Engineers

Y/PH/1950 - 1985. Deposited Plans

Y/PH/1986 - 2011. Ordnance Survey Plans

Y/PH/2012 - 2129. Norwich River Yare Commissioners' records

Y/PH/2130 - 2332 Minutes

Y/PH/2333 - 2347 Financial and Registration

Y/PH/2348 - 2354 Financial and Registration River Yare

Y/PH/2355 - 2382 Copy letter Books

Y/PH/2383 - 2400 Legal and Parliamentary

Y/PH/2401 - 2433 Reports, Acts, Orders and Byelaws

Y/PH/2434 - 2551 Leases, Agreements and Correspondence

Y/PH/2552 - 2565 Miscellaneous

Y/PH/2566 - 2570 Maps and Plans.

Y/PH/2571 - 2576 Registers, Certificates and Accounts

Other 18th and 19th cent. papers of the Commissioners have reached the Yarmouth Archives by a different route, via the Great Yarmouth Borough Library. They were formerly in the hands of Messrs. Tolver and Preston, solicitors, a firm of which four members were successively Clerks to the Commissioners (see Yarmouth Borough Archives, Y/PH/ L5, D14/2, 5, 14 - 16, 35, 36, D39/1 - 18, D41/45).

See D 66 harbourmaster's records

Great Yarmouth Port and Haven Commissioners, Norfolk

Norwich River Yare Commissioners, Norfolk

These records were deposited with the Great Yarmouth Borough Archives by the Clerk to the Great Yarmouth Port and Haven Commissioners in May 1966 - February 1967.

Y/PH/2012-2129 deposited by the Great Yarmouth Port and Haven Commissioners and collected from the former Harbour Master's house, Carrow Bridge, Norwich: 21 July 1983

Y/PH/2130-2570 deposited by the Commissioners: 1 October 1986; Y/PH/2571-2576 purchased 13 January 1987 from Fisher Nautical, Sussex

• Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
• Harbours

The Port and Haven Commissioners were established in 1670 by a Local Act of Parliament providing for the repair and maintenance of Yarmouth Haven and Pier by means of special dues levied on incoming goods. Eight Commissioners were appointed in a supervisory capacity under this Act, two each representing the towns of Yarmouth and Norwich and the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The original Act had a life of ten years only, but the Commissioners' powers were periodically renewed by a series of Acts of limited duration till 1835. Before 1835 executive power was largely in the hands of the constituent authorities, the Town Clerk of Yarmouth acting as the Commissioners' Clerk and the Borough Chamberlains as financial officers.

The Commissioners were given a more positive role by the Haven Act of 1749, and their minutes begin in 1750. By Acts of 1721 and later their responsibility for the navigable rivers flowing into Yarmouth Haven was acknowledged and their funds were apportioned between the Rivers Yare, Bure and Waveney and the Haven, the Commissioners from each of the constituent authorities being made responsible for expenditure on the waters within their jurisdiction. The Waveney between Beccles and Bungay was covered by a Private Act and therefore excluded from this arrangement. The Haven Act of 1771 stipulated that surpluses in the Suffolk quota might be applied elsewhere, and the Commissioners' minutes show that thereafter, till 1835, money was allotted for a variety of purposes but mainly for public works authorised by the Suffolk Justices.

In 1835 the Commissioners were placed on a permanent footing, their organisation was separated from that of Yarmouth Corporation and they were empowered to appoint their own officers and executive committees, a Standing Committee (see Y/PH/ 35 - 49 in list) and a Committee of Survey (see Y/PH/ 80 - 95) being especially mentioned in the Act. By the Acts of 1835 and 1866 elected representatives were added to their number and the local port dues formerly collected by Yarmouth Corporation were transferred to them. Under an Act of 1911 they acquired control of the Corporation's Fishwharf.

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