On the 9th July the Public Record Office, Kew, London updated their
searchable database. There are 8,205,122 references to records. For the
first time, it is now possible to search for the references to
British registered mining companies without looking through ledgers for a
company number and then looking that number up in another catalague to
find the repository box number. The database search function permits
you to use three keywords to find specific items in categories and
sub-categories or even the whole database.
The relevent categories for mining companies are BT41 - pre limited
liability; BT31 - registered limited liability companies; BT34 Liquidators
reports (late 19th and 20th centuries). Other relevent catagories include
COAL and MUN for the British Coal Industry and Ministry of Munitions (1st
World War), respectively. Other miscellanous company references appear
under Foreign Office etc. The BT (Board of Trade) records are incomplete
as some files were selectively destroyed prior to the collection being
archived (government policy).
For the mining historian / railway historian / social historian etc. etc.
there is now a considerable saving in time to be had. File reference
numbers can be looked up prior to visiting the PRO.
Understandably there are some teething problems with the database. I have
found for example that if you use an Internet Browser with frames the
database is slow. I get quick results using Netscape v1. Sometime using
Netscape v4 some of the minor properties of the page do not load up and
this seems to present speed problems when searching.
Since E-mailing the PRO on various points they have included a <go to
page> function on the search tool bar which makes life a bit more bearable
searching the 5800 pages of the BT31 files - This can be very useful if
the company name has been spelt wrongly and you know roughly when the
company was registered.
Access to the database is via www.pro.gov.uk
Happy and fruitful searching.
Rob Vernon.
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