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The Act was passed on IIth May, 1858, under which the provisional Company became a statutory water undertaking named the "Gosport Waterworks
Company" with a capital of £17,000 in £10 shares; and with power to borrow on mortgage up to £4,000. The Area of Supply was "the whole of the Parish of Alverstoke, in the County of Hants, in which the town of Gosport is situate" (about 6 sq. miles), and power to carry out the
Bury Cross Works was confirmed.
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The first directors nominated by the Act were the seven named above, of whom the Rev. Edward Burney became the first Chairman; he was to remain in office
for 30 years. He was was part-proprietor with his brother Henry of the Gosport Royal Academy, a large boarding school chiefly for naval and military pupils. Horatio Compigne, solicitor, was confirmed as the first
Secretary and held that position for 29 years.
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The Head Office of the Company remained at the Market House until 1890, when it was transferred to 1 High Street. In 19IO it was moved to Thornfield House, 4 High Street, which in 1955
became the Gosport Office of the present Company.
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The Bury Cross Works were completed in 1860, from which water was first supplied on 26th September of that year. The daily yield of the well proved to be
about 300,000 gallons, which was ample for some years to come. The capacity of the original water tower, however, was found to be much too small, so that a second larger water tower holding about 72,000 gallons was
completed in 1866.
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During the next 25 years, various works on the same site were carried out to meet the increasing demand. By 1892, altogether five wells and seven boreholes
had been sunk. The fifth well was, in effect, a large underground storage tank, 40 feet in diameter and 100 feet deep. In 1874 additional pumping plant was installed in the existing engine house, and in 1883-84 a
second pumping station was constructed over one of the other wells.
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Notwithstanding all these costly well works, the total daily yield was increased only from 300,000 up to 320,000 gallons, or by 7 per cent. Consequently,
from about 1877 onwards, in order to conserve the supply, the water was normally turned off during the night hours. It is significant that all these wells had been sunk in the same geological formation as the well
on Portsea Island belonging to one of the old Portsmouth Companies, who had likewise been unable to obtain an adequate large-scale supply from such a source. The Bury Cross wells were in due course superseded by
other sources to be described below. They went finally out of use in 1907, except that during both the World Wars they were held in reserve as an emergency source of supply.
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This photo is in both the downloadable versions Word and PDF
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After the continued failure to obtain more water from Bury Cross, the Company decided to develop new works at Foxbury Point, about three miles north of the
Town and half-a-mile from the west shore of Portsmouth Harbour, and an Order authorizing the scheme was obtained in 1897. The source was a well sunk into the Chalk formation through the overlying clay beds, from the
bottom of which headings (tunnels) were driven to tap the water in the Chalk fissures. The surface works consisted of a pumping station with two units, each having a daily capacity of about I million gallons,
together with a large water tower holding 230,000 gallons; in addition a 15-inch trunk, reducing to 12-inch, was laid into Gosport.
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Well I'm Blowed, would you believe it! - a dictionary of Sayings from Pompey and Turktown
