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Gosport, Forton and Anglesey Water Consumers' Company Ltd.
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The next step to introduce a piped water supply was a local enterprise; it was inaugurated at a meeting held at the India Arms Hotel, Gosport, on 21st
August, 1856, with Benjamin Hobbs senior of Forton in the Chair. It was resolved to form a Company to be called the "Gosport, Forton and Anglesey Pure Water Consumers' Company", with a Capital Stock of
£25,000 in £10 shares. (The word "Pure" was afterwards dropped). The resolutions were supported by the signatures of 33 of the leading inhabitants.
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At a subsequent meeting, six provisional directors were appointed, as follows:
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Rev. Edward Burney, school proprietor.
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Arthur Wright, grocer.
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David Compigne, solicitor.
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Thomas Walton, naval outfitter.
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to whom, at a later date, Joseph Starkey of London was added. Horatio Compigne, a partner of David Compigne, became the Secretary. Apparently no Chairman was appointed, each director in
turn taking the Chair. An office was opened at the Town Hall and Market House on Gosport Hard, where on 6th September a public meeting was held and subscriptions invited.
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The directors engaged James Pilbrow, civil engineer, of London to prepare plans and specifications for a complete scheme. His proposed source of supply was
a well with a borehole in the bottom, to be sunk in the water-bearing strata known as the Bracklesham Beds and Bagshott Sands at Bury Cross, about a mile west of the Town, together with a pumping station and water
tower, and about eight miles of distribution mains.On the basis of this scheme, a prospectus was issued in December, 1856, inviting subscriptions towards an initial capital of £25,000. It stated that a contractor
named Murray was prepared to undertake the complete works for the sum of £23,000 and that, if he was awarded the contract, he was willing to subscribe one-fourth of the capital; the Company would in the first
instance be established under the Limited Liability Act (which was a novelty, this Act having been passed only in the previous year), but an Act of Parliament would be applied for in the ensuing Session.
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Pilbrow, however, when he heard of Murray's offer, informed the directors that his own estimate for the complete scheme was only £14,331, and advised that
the work should be let in six separate contracts. Murray's tender was therefore declined, and consequently his offer of financial assistance was lost. In the meantime applications for shares were coming in so slowly
that the intention to go to Parliament forthwith had to be abandoned.
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In January, 1857, an amended prospectus based on a capital of £17,000 was issued, and in order to give local investors visual evidence that a scheme was
definitely afoot, it was decided to seek tenders forthwith for sinking the well and borehole at Bury Cross. The contract was let in the following May, when the first sod for the new waterworks was cut.In view of increased support for the
enterprise it was later decided to apply for the intended Act in the Parliamentary Session 1857-58.
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Well I'm Blowed, would you believe it! - a dictionary of Sayings from Pompey and Turktown
