MR-0057 Not Held By The Registrar; National Archives File Catalogued, Not Viewed
Western Ground Rents Ltd directors: annual returns 1951-1954
Should exist. Not held.
Why: Statute (Companies Act 1948: annual return listing directors, s.124 and Sixth Schedule; register of directors, s.200, with changes notified to the Registrar); cross-reference (HC Deb 6 Nov 1951; HC Deb 18 Mar 1955 cols 1618-19).
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Hansard records an MP telling the Commons on 6 November 1951 that a director of Western Ground Rents was then a member of the Government (not named), and on 18 March 1955 naming two Members associated with the company. The company owned the farm from 1938 to 1969, and its agents wrote on 10 October 1952 that they would not proceed with the letting. The annual returns name every director on each return date, so they would show who sat on the board while the 1952 letter was written. Parcel: A and B (the whole holding as conveyed in 1938; plan not held). Registrar's replies of 12 and 30 Oct 2026 (ref COH2382411X) named only a dissolved Western Ground Rents Limited, company 09760885, and set out the route and charges for copies; they did not say whether that is the company connected to the 1938 sale (a 20 Oct enquiry used company number 00342092), nor whether the 1950s returns are held. The same reply states that a list of past and present directors would not contain resignations before 1991, so the 1951-54 board can only come from the pre-1973 hard-file annual returns. Not checked: the incorporation date behind 09760885. The Registrar's Archive Searches reply of 3 November 2026 identifies the company as 00342092 (incorporated 2 July 1938, dissolved 22 August 1997) and states the paper and microfiche records were destroyed and not sent to The National Archives; The National Archives' own catalogue nonetheless lists a dissolved-company file under that number (BT 31/84793). Which statement is right has not been checked; a reading-room view of BT 31/84793 settles it.
Who should hold it: The National Archives: BT 31/84793, catalogued as 'Company No: 00342092; Western Ground Rents Ltd. Incorporated In 1938. Dissolved In 1997' (Discovery C18012213; a second series entry BT 31/87651, 1938-82, not checked as the same company). Not viewed. The Registrar of Companies states it holds only imaged documents.
Date of the record: 1951-1954
Learn more: searches so far (1)
- 2026-11-03 · Registrar of Companies (Companies House Archive Searches) (email reply 'WESTERN GROUND RENTS LIMITED' (separate thread from COH2382411X; their reference not restated in the reply) to a request of 2 Nov 2026 asking, for company 00342092, whether any paper file, microfiche or image is held and whether the file went to The National Archives): "Company records for Western Ground Rents Limited were not sent to the National Archives" and "All paper Records and Microfiche have been destroyed the only records available for this company are those that were captured on Image" (no date, schedule or destruction record given; questions 2-4 of the request not answered)
Related catalogue entries
- Registrar of Companies replies, 12 and 30 Oct 2026, ref COH2382411X
- Companies House Archive Searches reply, 3 Nov 2026
- TNA Discovery C18012213 (BT 31/84793)
What would fill this page: the annual returns of 1951-1954 inside BT 31/84793 (if it is this company's file), naming each director on each return date.