 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
Gosport.info Query |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Company ceased to be an independent Undertaking in 1955, when it united with the Portsmouth Water Company. |
|
|
At its incorporation in 1858 Gosport was without any piped water supply, so that it had started "from scratch" and grown with development .of the district, eventually becoming responsible also for the supply in a large rural area. A note worthy feature of recent years was the exceptionally large proportion of non-domestic supplies taken by the Government Establishments. The size of the Undertaking immediately prior to the Union may be gauged from a few figures relating to the year 1954-55: |
|
|
Area of Supply (Land only) .. 77 sq. miles Estimated Population supplied .. 80,400 Number of Domestic Supplies .. 19,527 Number .of Metered Supplies .. 1,098 Average Total Daily Supply .. 3,604,000 galls. Length of Mains .. 214 miles Capital Expenditure to date .. £546,727 Annual Revenue .. £80,861 Annual Revenue Expenditure .. £57,614 |
|
|
The principal events were:- The first supply from the Bury Cross Works (1860); the unfortunate Foxbury episode (1900-07); the opening .of the Soberton Works (1907); the very rapid increase in demand prior to and during the Second World War (1935-45); and the big programme of new works started in 1953 to meet the post-War conditions. |
|
|
In 1944 the Coalition Government of the day issued an important White Paper entitled "A National Water Policy", in which emphasis was laid on the desirability of amalgamating the many separate water undertakings throughout the country into larger units. The foregoing pages show that in South-east Hampshire this evolutionary process was already at work. Over the years the Portsmouth Company had absorbed the Idsworth Estate Waterworks (1930), those of the Catherington Rural District Council (1931), and the Hayling Island supply of the Havant and Waterloo Urban District Council (1950); the Gosport Company acquired the Lee-on-the-Solent Waterworks: Company (1915), the Bishop's waltham Waterworks of the Southampton Corporation (1941), and the West Meon Waterworks of the Droxford Rural District Council (1951). |
|
|
A momentous step was initiated in 1953, when a preliminary exchange of views between the directors of the two Companies indicated that both parties were favourable to an amalgamation. Terms were embodied in an agreement dated 28th April, 1954. which were later approved by the stockholders. The transaction was finally confirmed by a Ministerial Order which came into force on 1st April, 1955, thus creating the "Portsmouth and Gosport Water Company", which became the sole Water supply Authority for almost the whole of South-east Hampshire. |
|
|
The size and responsibilities of the United Company are illustrated by the following Table relating to the year ended 31st March, 1956, the first year of its working: |
|
|
Area of Supply (Land only) .. 157 sq. miles Estimated Population supplied .. 392,000 Number of Domestic Supplies .. 107,917 Number of Metered Supplies .. 6,102 Average Total Daily Supply .. 19,409,000 galls. Length of Mains .. 801 miles Capital Expenditure to date .. £1,985,734 Annual Revenue .. £396,097 Annual Revenue Expenditure .. £320,040 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Admin & Research Financial, Admin Assist adminandresearch.co.uk |
||||||||
|
Gosport Office Support Flexible Admin Support www.gosportofficesupport.co.uk |
||||||||
|
- Local adverts |
||||||||
|
|
||||||||