Gas lighting in the village (1895)

Post date: Feb 14, 2012 9:47:31 AM

An extract from parish magazine of December 1895

As these notes are being written the gas in the street is being lighted for the first time this season. Better late than never. There appears to have been some idea that perhaps the Parish Council would take up this matter. There is a rumour that it was considered at a recent meeting. We owe the much needed light to the energy of two or three gentlemen who have agreed to manage the lighting on a voluntary basis—a far cheaper method than going to the rates. Doubtless this was the view of the Parish Council. It is much more easy for a board or council to levy a rate than for individuals or even a committee to raise voluntary subscriptions. Therefore a Voluntary Committee will generally carry out any necessary project with less expense than the same project can be accomplished by a rate-levying board. Verbum sap. At present our rates are comparatively light. There are signs of increase in the near future, but no doubt the government will be able to devise a scheme whereby some of the burdens upon the land be lightened. At the same time Wateringbury is by no means an unimportant or a poor village, and neighbouring parishes look upon it as "the land of Goshen, flowing." Yet we lack some advantages which less wealthy places enjoy, and which might be ours at the cost of some energy and combination. We have no place really suitable for entertainments or meetings got up on any large scale. We have not even a parish room. The Vicar's study has to serve the purpose of the latter, but it is not expansive and already it has proved inadequate. But here the matter must be left for the present. It by no means improbable that both these wants will be supplied at no verv great expense before very long. Meanwhile the spiritual and social work of the parish is necessarily cramped.

Gas as a power source for light (to replace candles and oil lights) was first developed in Redruth, Cornwall by William Murdock in the 1790s and a public supply was forst provided in London in 1813. Over the next 50 years the gas industry would spread across the UK. Waterinbury was indeed late in getting gas lighting if the vicar's writing, quoted above, actually means there was no gas lighting in Wateringbury until 1895. The vicar's comments come at the time of the establishment of the secular parish council to which he was opposed. When the Leney business floated in 1896 their gas assets were listed in their properties. Often gas lighting was first employed in factories to enable the working day to be extended. Heating and then cooking by gas came later. Gas was made by heating coal in a retort releasing gas. Coke was one of a number of by-products. The gas produced needed to be cleaned before storage in gas holders. It was known as "town gas". It was then condensed to the correct pressure to be piped to customers.