Thames Conservancy Office

Corporate body

Thames Conservancy Office

1857-1974

The Thames Conservancy was founded in 1857 by the passing of the Thames Conservancy Act. It was eventually responsible for the management of the whole of the River Thames from its source in Cricklade, Gloucestershire to the Thames Estuary where the river becomes tidal.
It originally comprised a board of 12 members: the Lord Mayor, two aldermen, four nominees of the common council, the Deputy Master of Trinity House, two nominees of the Lord Admiral, one nominee of the Privy Council and one by the Trinity House Deptford Strand.
The Corporation of London had administered the lower river from Staines to the estuary for 660 years, but in the 1850's, a financial crisis arose. Income fell as railways became established and took over the transport of many goods. The river was becoming heavily polluted from the increase in industry, and the wash from the modern steamboats was eroding the banks of the river. The corporation was failing to raise enough income to properly fund its responsibilities. In 1857 the Corporation of London handed over the management of the river from Staines to the estuary to the newly formed Thames Conservancy.
The Thames Commission was also in financial difficulties due to the competition of transport by rail. It was believed that under single management with the upper river maintained properly and with lower tolls overall the traffic would increase. Under an Act of 6 August 1866, the Thames Conservancy took over management of the river, resulting in responsibility for the whole of the river Thames from its source to the estuary at Yantlet Creek.
The Conservancy had far-reaching powers concerning the navigation of the river. It undertook dredging; built and maintained locks and weirs; was responsible for water supplies taken from the river; and licensed various activities undertaken on the river. The Thames Conservancy was largely responsible for many of the facets of the Thames that are still in place today - full-time lock keepers, river patrols, well-maintained locks, weirs, and cottages, dredged channels, stabilised banks and public moorings.
They were influential in passing the Thames Preservation Act in 1885 which was to enshrine the preservation of river for public recreation. It prohibited shooting on the river which had become a cause of concern. The act noted "It is lawful for all persons for pleasure or profit to travel or to loiter upon any and every part or the river". The river had become exceedingly popular for sport and leisure and events on the river were very well-attended with prominent examples being the Henley Regatta and the Oxford Cambridge Boat Race.
By the end of the 19th century the advance in the size of ships and the growth of the Port of London raised questions of management and a Royal Commission reported in 1900 recommending that a single body take responsibility for the Port. In 1908, the Port of London Act transferred responsibility for the Tideway including Richmond Lock to the Port of London Authority, which began its duties on 31 March 1909.
In the 1960s modernisation of the locks began under the Conservancy with the first hydraulic system introduced at Shiplake Lock in 1961.
On 1 April 1974, the Thames Conservancy was subsumed into the new Thames Water Authority, although much of the organisation remained intact as the authority's Thames Conservancy Division. However when Thames Water was privatised in 1990 the river management functions passed to the new National Rivers Authority and in 1996 to the Environment Agency.

Compiled from the websites of the Berkshire Record Office, the Thamespilot website and from http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/manage.htm