| Description | Minute volumes indexed. The minutes are handwritten and signed by the committee chairman. The minutes are in the volumes entitled 'Parks Sub-Committee Report Book', with the dates included on the spine where they survive. The minutes include the reports of the Parks Superintendent and Secretary of the Parks Sub-Committee; information on acquisition of land for public parks and open spaces; details relating to the staffing and upkeep of public parks; accounts and statements of income and expenditure (including estimates and tenders for proposed works); and related correspondence and papers. The minutes of 29 May 1908 include a report concerning a proposal to set up an Air Rifle Range for 'the benefit of the working men of this City', and references to this pursuit are continued throughout the later minutes (see minute 6251 in BCC/1/AL/4/1/8). There were numerous attempts by urban elites to encourage working classes to engage in outdoor activities and sports for the improvement of health and physique, seen as much a means of ensuring the preservation of national and military strength and the Empire as improving the welfare of the poorer classes. Such initiatives complemented the general efforts of local authorities to provide open spaces amongst working class housing developments (with particular reference to the Housing and Town Planning Act, 1909) and the 'Garden Suburb Movement'. |