Cork Wide Streets Commissioners Archive- Descriptive List

and granted by the said last mentioned act of Parliament, to the commissioners therein named, or to be by the authority therein given elected or appointed with respect to the streets, lanes, and passages, and the lands, ground, houses, and tenements in the city of Dublin.” (City of Cork Act 1765, 5 th George the 3 rd Chapter 24) The 1765 act named sixteen commissioners, and set out that the Cork Commission should operate on the same basis as that of Dublin (founded earlier in 1757). Subsequent acts dealt with such matters as the power of the Commissioners for compulsory purchase (17/18 Geo. 4, c.38) and lighting (11/12 Geo. 3, c.18-17). However, it was the apportioning of a third of the butter weigh-house dues (40 Geo. 3, c.100) in 1810 which provided a regular form of funding for the first time. According to Louise Harrington, historian, an 1822 Act, 3 rd Geo.4 th ,c.85, amalgamated all of the earlier acts and consolidated funding provisions. The Commissioners were now authorised to borrow, and local taxes could be raised for their work. The act also set out powers in relation to street repairs and cleansing, the removal of dirt, building regulations to specify the maintenance of building lines and the removal of projections into the street, the closing-up of streets, the provision of lighting, and the conduct of the business of the Commissioners. The widening of Castle Street is an example of the earlier work of the Commission in Cork, before the principal act of 1822 and the later building of Great George's Street, today Washington Street. The meat-shambles on Castle Street in the area close to the Guild Hall, the meeting place of the Commissioners, was gradually cleared in the 1790s. This was done by means of a process that involved the compulsory purchase of the freehold of the properties involved and the Commissioners then leasing the sites to building developers. The Commission used its authority to specify a minimum street width of thirty-two feet, and required that the buildings should be of a uniform front. At that time the proceeds of the lease of these properties were to go towards funding the Wide Streets Commissioners. In relation to the acquisition of sites to make Great George’s Street, to establish the value of a site, the Commissioners would convene a meeting in the Guild Hall and twelve jurors would be sworn to carry out an inquisition or valuation. The meeting would be adjourned to receive the findings of the inquisition. A third and final meeting passed a judgment on the evaluation. The time between the initial meeting and the adjournment could-be from one day to twenty-two months, with a majority being decided between three and four months. Less than half of the twenty-four sites have judgments which were contained in a separate document. Judgments took a minimum of one month (this happened towards the end of the process in 1827) and a maximum of four years, which was quite common. Under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act, 1840, Cork was divided into eight wards, returning 16 Aldermen and 48 Councillors to the Corporation, and the official style and title of the Corporate Body was the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Commonalty of the City of Cork. The eight wards into which the city was divided under that Act were described as the Lee Ward, St. Patrick's Ward, Glanmire Ward, Corn Market Ward, St. Finbarr's Ward, Mansion House Ward, Exchange Ward, and Custom House Ward. At the passing of this Act there were in existence two bodies, whose property, powers and jurisdiction were subsequently taken over by the Corporation, viz., the Wide Street Commissioners and the Pipe Water Company. The Wide Street Commissioners had charge of the lighting, paving and cleansing of the City, and having estimated the cost of each half-year's expenditure, sent in a requisition to the City of Cork Grand Jury to provide by a rate the amount required. The Grand Jury made half-yearly assessments to defray expenses, including the requisition of the Wide Street Commissioners, and made a rate to cover the estimated total expenditure.

Up to 1852, Cork Corporation Revenues were exclusively receivable from what is called the Borough Fund, which consisted of moneys received from Tolls, Markets and Property, and the Corporation had no power to strike rates in the City (excepting only a Borough Rate, which was never levied). In that