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Gosport.info Query |
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Originally the Town of Gosport was the built-up and fortified part of the Parish of Alverstoke on the west shore of Portsmouth Harbour facing Old Portsmouth. In 1894 the Parish became the Gosport and Alverstoke Urban District, and in 1922 it was promoted to the status of the Borough of Gosport. |
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Its fortunes have been closely linked with those of Portsmouth, because they have both depended for their .main livelihood upon the development over the years of H.M. Dockyard and its many subsidiary establishments in the district. Gosport is, in effect, the western division of the Port of Portsmouth. But although they are neighbours, the wide expanse of the Harbour between them caused their respective water supplies to be developed quite independently of each other. |
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Early History |
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It appears that for a short time Gosport had a piped water supply more than a hundred years before Portsmouth. Dr. L. F. W. White, in his booklet, The Story of Gosport (1947) writes : |
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"As far back as 1698 an enterprising Londoner named Thomas Lewis obtained an Act of Parliament for the erection of a waterworks at Forton, just outside the boundary of the town, but the Company got into financial difficulties, and only 240 houses ever received their supply through hollowedout elm-tree pipes. . . . ." |
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Evidence of this supply in the then Middle Street (now High Street) has been provided by the wooden pipes that have been dug up from time to time along this roadway. |
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The next known reference to an early public water supply is found in The Times dated 28th March, 1816. It contains an advertisement giving notice of a "Special General Assembly of the Proprietors of the Gosport and Forton Water-Works. . . . to consider the propriety of proceeding to effect an immediate sale and disposition of all the property and effects belonging to the Company. . .." Little else is known of this Company. It was not in existence in 1808, because, as already recorded, the promoters of the old Portsmouth and Farlington Company in that year intended to include Gosport in its Area of Supply - a proposal that was soon dropped. On the other hand, there is in the records of the Portsmouth Company a letter dated November, 1811, referring to a pump "exactly the same as made for the Gosport Water- Works". The inference appears to be that this Company had a short life, from about 1809 to 1816. The works were a well and pumping station at Forton, which were later purchased by the Government for the supply of the nearby Marine Barracks. |
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Apart from these two brief enterprises, both started by London promoters, the inhabitants of Gosport had to rely upon shallow wells and water-carts in much the same way as in the early Portsmouth. White states: |
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"Even in 1850 over 7,700 gallons a day came from three main wells and 36 great carts each carrying a ton of water plied through the streets selling water at 1/4d a bucket. It was poor in quality and intermittent in supply, although the vendors collected about £1,700 a year." |
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According to the National Census of 1851, the population of the Parish of Alverstoke was 16,908 of which 7,414 were in Gosport Town, and 2,432 in Service and other establishments. |
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Admin & Research Financial, Admin Assist adminandresearch.co.uk |
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Gosport Office Support Flexible Admin Support www.gosportofficesupport.co.uk |
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