What every engineer

needs to know about:

Historical
Research

enable you to have a basic understanding of

the subject.
What do I do if I need more detailed
information?
Contact the Archivist at the Institution of Civil
Engineers: carol.morgan@ice.org.uk

Why do you need this information?

In the developed world around 50% of
construction deals with existing structures or
brownfield sites. The history of these sites will
have been recorded somewhere. Conditions
of Contract refer to unforeseen conditions.
Good practice in historical research will enable
you to trace this information, possibly saving
thousands of pounds in investigation work
subsequent or claims. Knowledge of the
existence of wells in Stratford, exposed in
March 2003, would have saved time and
money on the CTRL project..

Checks for hidden

well delay CTRL at
Stratford

New
Search
Basic
Standard
Advance
d

New Civil Engineer 20/03/2003

CHANNEL TUNNEL Rail Link (CTRL)
engineers were this week checking to see
whether an uncharted well is lying in the path of
one of its tunnel boring machines (TBM) at
Stratford.
In May 2005 Network Rail engineers seeking
information on the foundations of Hungerford
Railway Bridge across the Thames at Charing
Cross discovered relevant drawings in an
article in Allgemeine Bauzeitung in the ICE
Library, and in the Office of Woods papers in
the National Archives, Kew.
What will this guide do?
This guide will help you identify likely sources
of information to assist you with historical
research. It will advise you on what you may
need to do if you are planning to visit an
archive. It will provide you with some key
references to the history of civil engineering to

Plan of the breach in the Thames River

defences at Dagenham from J Perry (1721)
The Stopping of Dagenham Breach.
When might I need to carry out historical
research?
You have been asked to do a structural
inspection of a building
Typical questions might be:

Where is it?
How old is it?
Is it the first building on the site?
Who designed it?
What are the original ground
conditions like?
What kind of foundations has it
got?
How was it designed?
Who built it?
How was it built?
Has its use altered?
Has it always looked like this?
What type of construction is it?
What loads was it designed for?
Is it listed or otherwise protected?

The answers to all of these questions involve

some historical research. Your own
knowledge of the history of civil engineering
may enable you to easily answer some
questions, but others may require a lot of
research, and may be unanswerable. The
more answers you have before you undertake

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research in a library or archive, the more likely

you are to find the information you need.
What resources are available for historical
research?
In broad terms the historian will use both
published and unpublished resources.
Published resources includes textbooks,
journals, newspapers, trade literature and
maps. They also include films and videos.
Unpublished resources may include maps and
plans as well. They also include manuscripts,
typed reports, photographs, and private
records, files, etc.

Where owners cannot help most public

libraries have a local studies collection, which
may or may not be housed with the local
records office. The latter have statutory
obligations with regard to local government
records, and generally have collections of local
business records.
Finding Aids
To find collections of papers either by name or
by work there are 3 major web resources
The Archon Directory
www.archon.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/
A2A - Access to Archives
http://www.a2a.org.uk/
soon changing to
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a
National Register of Archives
www.nra.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/
How do I visit an archive?

Interior view of the Great Exhibition Building,

1851
Where can I find unpublished papers
drawings and manuscripts?
To find archives relating to a building or other
civil engineering work you could start with the
present owner. If they have no records then
you can try and find the records of the
designer or contractor. In some cases even if
the practice has disappeared staff may have
kept personal papers. The fate of some
businesses can be traced through Companies
House (www.companies-house.gov.uk). Other
possible sources are past owners, particularly
the original owner. In the case of major
landowners of the past, papers may be located
many miles from the work in question. Local
authorities, particularly the Building Control
Department, are the most likely source to have
records, although retention policies may vary.

Before visiting an archive you should make

appropriate preparations. Archives often have
restricted visitor space. There may be
restrictions on how much material you can look
at at one time. Material may be stored off site.
If you have not visited an archive or records
office before you will need proof of identity and
permanent address, and possibly a letter of
introduction. Most local records offices belong
to a national cooperative readers scheme, so
once you have a pass you should be able to
use it elsewhere. You will need pencils rather
than pens. You should check on laptop
facilities and copying.
If you know what you are looking for you may
be able to request it in advance.
Websites will often advise on conditions of
access.
The clearer your ideas about what you are
looking for and the more advance warning you
give the better service you will get.
Family history is very popular with the general
public and if you need to carry out
genealogical research you may have to book
time to access census records and similar
information.

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Collections
There are a number of bodies that have
important collections of archival material. Not
all will be catalogued on the finding aids listed
above. The Institution of Civil Engineers
collect selective material relating to the
development of civil engineering worldwide.
Contact carol.morgan@ice.org.uk
Royal Institute of British Architects
www.architecture.com
The national collection of papers of architects;
the Archives and Drawings Collections are
now (2004) housed in the Victoria and Albert
Museum as part of a joint venture.
The library catalogue is available online at the
website above and a published catalogue of
drawings is available.
Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru
http://www.rcahmw.org.uk/
Based in Aberystwyth the Royal Commission
on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales
houses the National Monuments Record for
Wales.
English Heritage, www.english-heritage.org.uk/
Have London offices in Savile Row, W1, and
regional centres. The Swindon office houses
the National Monuments Record.
Historic Scotland, www.historicscotland.gov.uk Longmore House, Salisbury
Place, Edinburgh EH9 1SH. Tel: 0131 668
8600; Fax: 0131 668 8669;
National Archives
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Located in Kew, the National Archives are
particularly rich in records relating to
government buildings including dockyard
structures, and the records of the nationalised
industries notably the canal and railway
companies. Some drawings are held.
The National Archives of Scotland, Register
House, 2 Princes Street, Edinburgh EH1 3YY.
Tel: 0131 535 1334; Fax: 0131 535 1328;
www.nas.gov.uk
Network Rail
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/
The regional plan offices of network rail
contain original drawings, microfilm and digital
images of the railway infrastructure. Access is
very restricted for non-Network Rail Staff.

Royal Commission on the Ancient and

Historical Monuments of Scotland,
www.rcahms.gov.uk/ John Sinclair House, 16
Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh EH8 9NX. Tel:
0131 662 1456; Fax: 0131 662 1499.
Their Canmore database gives access to
information on a whole range of resources.
The Commission is the custodian of the Arrol
archive.
http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/PORTAL.
wwa_app_module.show?
p_sessionid=101233&p_header=true
Science Museum
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/library/archi
ve.asp
Important collections relating to Sir Alexander
Gibb and Partners, Watson Hawksley and
John Taylor and Sons.
Waterways Archive
http://www.thewaterwaystrust.org.uk/museums
/archives.shtml
British Waterways archive is currently
scattered across a number of their sites, and in
museums at Gloucester Docks and Ellesmere
Port. Fund-raising is underway to create a
national archive centre.
Canadian Centre for Architecture
Despite its name a centre for the study of the
history of architecture and the built
environment worldwide. Their collections
include the photographic collections of the
Cleveland Bridge Company.
http://www.cca.qc.ca
I know the name of the engineer, how can I
find out more?
If they were members of ICE or another similar
body then ICE archives should be able to help.
He was President of ICE, they must have
his papers!
Fame is no guarantee of the survival of
papers. Bristol University house a large
number of papers of I K Brunel, and much of
his work for the GWR is recorded with Network
Rail, the National Archives, or Wiltshire
Records Office. However, the records of his
great contemporaries Robert Stephenson and
Joseph Locke are scattered across many
records offices, and few personal papers have
survived. Most of Smeatons drawings are
held in the Royal Society whereas his
manuscript correspondence that survives is
largely at ICE. Many great engineers have no
recognised archive Sir John Hawkshaw and

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Sir John Fowler being good examples from the

late nineteenth century.

DICTIONARY of business biography; a

biographical dictionary of business leaders
active in Britain in the period 1860-1980.
Butterworth, 1984-1986.
MARSHALL, J. 2003. Biographical Dictionary
of Railway Engineers. Railway and Canal
Historical Society, 2nd ed.
SKEMPTON, A.W. and others eds. 2002.
Biographical dictionary of civil engineers. Vol.
1 1500-1830. London: Thomas Telford Ltd.
Its an important structure; it must be
written up in ICE Proceedings?

William Jesssop, Engineer for West India

Docks (copies of many of his papers are
deposited at ICE)
Engineers dealing with the works of wellknown engineers like Brunel must also be
aware that even if they locate Brunels papers
on a bridge or cutting, over the 150 years other
engineers may well have modified or
destroyed his work. Historical research must
be thorough and be combined with site visits.
The archive finding aids listed above will help
you find surviving papers.
The papers of academics are generally located
in their university. Fine examples of the latter
are the Peter Rowe and Boyd Dawkins
collections at the University of Manchester,
and the Skempton and Bishop collections at
Imperial College London. These are notable
for not only containing details of their
academic research but also reports relating to
the large number of consultations they were
involved in. Ove Arups personal papers are at
Churchill College, Cambridge.

Every work is of importance to the client and

engineer, but however important it may seem
this does not mean that it was ever described
in a publication. This is particularly the case
when the engineer or contractor is very busy. It
may be noticed by a journalist in a local paper
or technical magazine like NCE, but never get
a detailed description. A number of sources
are available to trace published articles ICEs
proceedings are indexed back to 1836, with
downloadable files
http://www.ice.org.uk/knowledge/library_public
ations_search.asp

Borthwicks paper on cast iron steel pile walls

from ICE Transactions
The Institution of Structural Engineers has an
online database and their papers are also
being digitised
http://www.istructe.org.uk/library/index.asp
Other major databases are:
Engineering index (Compendex) 1885Available online as part of Elseviers
Engineering village; accessible via ICE library

Biographical Dictionaries

Indexes of Victorian Periodicals

DAY, L. and MCNEIL.1998. Biographical

Dictionary of the History of Technology. New
York: Routledge.

Repertorium der technischen literatur, 1823-.

Berlin, Leipzig. International in its coverage but
strongest for Germany

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ROYAL SOCIETY. Catalogue of scientific

papers, 1800-1900. London and Cambridge,
1867-1923 Strongest on theory and analysis.
ICE published abstracts of foreign literature
1871-1920.

National Libraries comprehensive collections

relating to their country. Based in London,
Aberystwyth and Edinburgh.

Twentieth century indexes

The Building Research Establishment,
Transport Research Laboratory and Water
Research Centre all produced abstracts for
many years before the invention of computers,
and paper copies are available at ICE.
Property Services Agency produced
Construction References from the 1940s until
its privatisation. The Subject index to
periodicals and the British Technology Index
are useful indexes of the leading British
journals.
Libraries just have books, dont they?
Libraries generally collect published material.
However these take a whole variety of forms:
textbooks, conference proceedings,
directories, handbooks, learned and trade
journals, government publications, standards
and regulations, trade literature, and reports.
Anything published since c.1880 is considered
in copyright and copying is likely to be
restricted by copyright law.
The value of each type of material will vary
according to the aim of your research. If you
are seeking background information on how a
work is likely to have been designed or
constructed then all the above are likely to be
of some help. If you are seeking information
on a specific building then books are less likely
to be of help, articles in journals and
conferences may be most helpful, and
technical literature on systems and products
used can be helpful if it contains technical
design data.
According to the information you are seeking
libraries are the best source of published
material. Most libraries, for reasons of space
are only likely to keep the latest editions of
books and standards. For that reason the
libraries of professional institutions, research
libraries, national libraries, major municipal
libraries, and academic libraries with a long
tradition of teaching engineering are the main
sources for older material
Institutional Libraries

Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of

Structural Engineers and Royal Institute of
British Architects are the most important
collections with online catalogues and many of
their staff have specialist subject knowledge.

The most important is the British Library and

its reference collection in London. Much
material is held offsite at Boston Spa where
the Document Supply Centre is based.
Newspapers which include weekly magazines
like Construction News are held in the
Newspaper Library at Colindale. An online
catalogue covers most of its holdings with the
exception of material in the Department of
Manuscripts and former India Office
Collections, which are slowly being added.
The Library houses the UKs main collection of
patents.
The University Libraries at Cambridge and
Oxford (Bodleian) are also copyright libraries,
as is the Irish National Library at Trinity
College, Dublin.
Academic Libraries textbooks, long runs of
academic journals related to teaching.
Imperial College London has an important
historical collection in the Civil Engineering
Department.
Major Public Libraries textbooks,
government publications, patents, standards
(probably only latest), local directories and
newspapers, some journals relating to local
industries, etc. Outstanding examples are the
Mitchell Library at Glasgow and Birmingham
Central Library.
Other collections
Construction Industry Resource Centre
Archive (CIRCA), Kimmins Hill, Meadow Lane,
Dudbridge, Gloucestershire GL5 5JP. Tel: 0117
968 7850 (evening) 07966 227 575 (daytime);
Fax: 0117 962 6614. Possibly worth
contacting if more conventional, i.e.,
ICE/IStructE/RIBA sources fail.
The drawings refer to an old proprietary
system. Where can I find out more?
Of all forms of published literature trade
literature is the most ephemeral. Generally

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organisations throw out old literature when

new product information is provided.
There are important collections of trade
literature in the Science Museum Library and
the British Library, but they are by no means
comprehensive. If firms have deposited
records in their local records offices material
may be found there. Generally institutional
libraries have only collected trade literature
with a substantial technical content, for
example, ICE and IStructE have collections of
section handbooks, ICE have a number of
steel piling handbooks, etc., etc., ICE have
been acquiring material related to the
development of concrete as part of the
concrete archive project. BRE have
developed a lot of expertise in system building
and produce a number of guides, which have
been recently published on CD-ROMs. Their
original, unpublished, reports on system
housing are in the ICE archives.
The building was erected in 1938, where
can I find the Standards of the time?
The British Standards Institution has an almost
complete collection of superseded standards
and certified copies can be purchased. ICE
and the IStructE have large collections of
superseded standards and building
regulations.
National standards and codes of practice
inevitably follow the introduction of
technologies, and it may be years before
standards are adopted. In these cases one
must refer to textbooks and trade literature to
establish design practice in the absence of
original records.

Title page of the first edition of BS4

Are there any specialist societies I can
join?
Both ICE (contact Carol Morgan) and IStructE
(contact Berenice Chan) have historical
groups. In the case of architects, the Society
of Architectural Historians cater for those
involved in historical research.
The Association for Industrial Archaeology
www.industrial-archaeology.org.uk/ c/o School
of Archaeological Studies, University of
Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH. Tel: 0116 252
5337; Fax: 0116 252 5005
The Construction History Society,
www.constructionhistory.co.uk c/o The
Chartered Institute of Building, Englemere,
Kings Ride, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 8BJ. Tel:
01344 630734; Fax: 01344 630777;
The Newcomen Society, The Science
Museum, London SW7 2DD. t/Fax: 020 7371
4445; www.newcomen.com/ Their
Transactions are the most important source in
the field of the history of technology, and are
accessible online.

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Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings,

encourages best practice in conservation and
preservation, runs courses and produce
guidelines. http://www.spab.org.uk
The Amenity societies such as the Georgian
Society, Victorian Society and Twentieth
Century Society all organise activities involved
with the historic built environment.
www.georgiangroup.org.uk
www.victorian-society.org.uk
www.c20society.org.uk
What records should be preserved?
The Institution of Civil Engineers Archives
Panel do produce advice on records retention.
Certain kinds of business records have to be
kept for legal reasons, but the situation with
regard to project records is less clear.
However for projects since 1994 the CDM
Regulations have required a Health & Safety
File to be produced at the conclusion of any
construction project. It is a record of reliable
information for the client or the end user which
focuses on health & safety. The information it
contains will alert those who are responsible
for the structure of the key health & safety
risks that will be dealt with during subsequent
maintenance repair and construction work.
The contents will vary depending on the type
of structure and the future health and safety
risks that will have to be managed. Typical
information which may be put on the file
includes:

and equipment installed as part of the

structure.
Details of the location of utilities and services,
including emergency and fire fighting systems.
The Health & Safety File should therefore be
the first port of call for any engineer inspecting
or considering work to a recent existing
building.
While electronic records offer convenience in
terms of storage space and access, they are
vulnerable to systems failure and redundancy.
There is an ongoing maintenance cost in
checking the integrity of data and constantly
upgrading software, etc. For those reasons
professional archivists still prefer paper and
microfilms. Advice on preservation of
electronic records can be obtained from the
National Preservations Office. The Institute of
Chartered Secretaries and Administrators
http://www.icsa.org.uk publish a (2004) Guide
to document retention.
Background Reading
DAVEY, N. 1961. A History of Building
Materials. London: Phoenix House.
PANNELL, J. P. M. 1964. An Illustrated History
of Civil Engineering. London: Thames &
Hudson.
STRAUB, H. 1952. A History of Civil
Engineering. London: Leonard Hill. (a later
German edition is available)
Structural Appraisal

Record or as built buildings and

plans used and produced throughout
the construction process.

The design criteria.

General details of the construction

methods and materials used.

STEEL CONSTRUCTION INSTITUTE. 1996

Appraisal of Existing Iron and Steel Structures.
By M.N. Bussell. SCI

Details of the equipment and

maintenance facilities within the
structure.

SUTHERLAND, R J M. et al. 2001. Historic

Concrete: Background to Appraisal. London:
Thomas Telford Limited,

Maintenance procedures and

requirements for the structure.

Manuals produced by specialist

contractors and suppliers which
outline operating and maintenance
procedures and schedules for plant

For further advice, and suggested reading on

other specialist areas such as bridges and
waterfront structures it is suggested you
contact the librarians at ICE and IStructE.

INSTITUTION OF STRUCTURAL
ENGINEERS. 1996. Appraisal of Existing
Structures, 2nd ed. London: IStructE.
Especially checklist in Appendix 1.

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