On the ECR CD, this is File I.

In its early working days the ECR was a new company in a new industry, rapidly learning how best to do things. Its committee structure must have depended on the style and personality of its officers, and not infrequently changed as a better way forward was perceived. Doubtless much went on unrecorded behind the scenes, but we still have the Minute books held at Kew. At this period duplicate hand-written copies were sometimes produced: where this was the case the other book has been checked, and any differences in it have been noted {in curly brackets} in the summaries.

Some recent recent additions to this file are a set of summaries relating to very early days - 1836 to 1838.  The same group of individuals appeared on what look like ad hoc committees to deal with problems as they arose (e.g. a committee 'to look out for offices', or one to lay down directors' allowances).  A big problem was how best to respond to Lord Petre.  There is also a considerable list of names of property owners and residents who were about to be displaced by the new line.

After that, we have available summaries of the Minutes of what they called the United Extension Sub-Committee for October 1843 to May 1844. These are followed by the Committee of Management for June to September 1844, taken from the same pair of minute books. A Committee of Management had actually existed earlier for a while, but this time it appeared to take over the sort of business previously dealt with by the United Extension Sub-Committee.

Much of the later part is devoted to the Finance Committee, which by 1850 had become the Accounts Committee.

Last updated 23 February 2015.  The latest additions are the contents of two Minute Books which ran in parallel from 1839 to 1841. The first contains the records of the Finance Committee of the time, which part way through transformed into the Engineering Committee.  The second book deals with Section 2 of the Finance Committee.  An attempt is made to explain what this was!

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