Minute Book now available for all
Thrown out with the rubbish in the 1940s, a 150 year old minute book from the London & North Western Railway Company was rescued and finally donated to British Waterways archives. Concerning the company's ownership of the Huddersfield canals, it gives a fascinating insight into life on the canal during the mid 19th Century.
British Waterways' Yorkshire heritage advisor, Judy Jones, was torn between preserving this fragile and unique document and yet making it freely available for reference. The answer: calling upon the services of the Huddersfield Canal Society to make digital photographs of all 250 pages and then compile the text on computer.
Judy said: "The minute book is an immaculate social history document which can now be enjoyed by everyone thanks to the work put in by the Huddersfield Canal Society.
"We were thrilled when we received the book as it contains invaluable minute records about the Huddersfield Narrow Canal when it was under ownership of the railways from 1855-1869.
"We can learn so much about life on the canals from documents like this so we're really pleased to be able to add this to our own archive collection and now make it widely available to the general public."
Society Administrator, Dr Bob Gough and Marketing Officer, Claire Bebbington have spent over 120 hours producing this digital version and will be making it available to download via the Society's website."
Bob said "Thanks to Claire's touch typing skills and plenty of deciphering of the hand written text, we have succeeded in producing a copy of the document.
"I am delighted to have been involved with the project as I believe we have achieved the 'best of both worlds'; the text-based document is free for all to study, whilst preserving the original in archive condition for future generations."
Whether you are researching family history or simply curious about life on the canal in the mid-19th century, it is easy to search the document and find references of interest; all without damaging the original!
The Huddersfield Canal Society was happy to support this project as part of its aim to promote all aspects of the Canal both ancient and modern!
How to view the Minute Book
Click the link below to view the Minute Book as a Word document. If you are prompted to enter a password, do not do so but instead click the "Read only" button.