Commissions of Sewers Act 1708

Commissions of Sewers Act 1708 ^[a]

Act of Parliament
Parliament of Great Britain
Long title	An Act for rendring more effectual the Laws concerning Commissions of Sewers. [b]
Citation	7 Ann. c. 33 [c] 7 Ann. c. 10 [d]
Territorial extent	Great Britain
Dates
Royal assent	21 April 1709
Commencement	25 March 1709 [e]
Repealed	1 August 1930
Other legislation
Repealed by	Land Drainage Act 1930
Relates to	Statute of Sewers
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Commissions of Sewers Act 1708 ^[a] (7 Ann. c. 33) ^[c] , sometimes called the Commissioners of Sewers Act 1708, ^[1] was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain. It concerned the duties of boards of commissioners with responsibility for the maintenance of sea banks and other defences, which protected low-lying areas from inundation by the sea, and the removal of obstructions in streams and rivers caused by mills, weirs and gates. The word sewer had a much broader meaning than in modern usage, and referred generally to streams and watercourses. ^[2]

The main legislation dealing with land drainage in Britain was the Statute of Sewers (23 Hen. 8. c. 5), which had been passed by King Henry VIII in 1531, and sought to make the powers of various commissions of sewers permanent, whereas previously, each parliament had to renew their powers. Amendments had been made during the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I, and the act passed during the reign of Queen Anne was similar, in that it left the main powers of Henry's act in place. ^[3]

Subsequent developments

The whole act was repealed by section 83(1) of, and schedule 7 to, the Land Drainage Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 44), ^[4] although any commissioners acting under the powers of the 1708 act were deemed to be a properly-constituted internal drainage board under the terms of the new act. There were 49 commissions of sewers still operative when the 1930 act was passed. ^[5]

Notes

1. The citation of this act by this short title was authorised by section 1 of, and the first schedule to, the Short Titles Act 1896. Due to the repeal of those provisions it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
2. These words are printed against this act in the second column of the first schedule to the Short Titles Act 1896, which is headed "Title".
3. This is the citation in The Statutes of the Realm
4. This is the citation in The Statutes at Large
5. Section 1.

References

1. Hardcastle, Henry (1901). Craies, William Feilden (ed.). A Treatise on the Construction and Effect of Statute Law (3rd ed.). Stevens and Haynes. p. 599.
2. Wheeler & Batty 1897, pp. 44–45.
3. Wheeler & Batty 1897, p. 44.
4. Dobson & Hull 1931, pp. 129–130.
5. Dobson & Hull 1931, pp. 110–111.

Bibliography

• Halsbury's Statutes
• Dobson, Alban; Hull, Hubert (1931). The Land Drainage Act 1930. Oxford University Press.
• Wheeler, William Henry; Batty, Leonard Charles (1897). A History of the Fens of South Lincolnshire. Boston: J M Newcomb. ISBN   978-1-241-32839-9. (British Library reprint)