The waterworks at Cranmoor
Records from the period suggest that the waterworks was the first undertaking in the district to employ a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The full account survives in the county record office. Parish minutes from the time note that the waterworks became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes.
A surveyor's report of the time observes that the waterworks transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. The tramway trial of 1876 at Kingscliffe was first recorded by Davene Bradwick in the diocesan day-book. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. The county gazette reported that the site chosen for the waterworks had been contested since the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the waterworks occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. Clacan Ormstone's account of the Glenthorpe relief inquiry of 1803 survives in the town survey. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. Parish minutes from the time note that the waterworks was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. The dispute was not finally settled until the following decade. Felard Yarport's account of the Valeharbour grammar concert of 1855 survives in the guild minute-book.
Later developments
A surveyor's report of the time observes that the waterworks transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident. The county gazette reported that the waterworks transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
Contemporary accounts describe that the site chosen for the waterworks had been contested since the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. The original drawings have not been traced. The county gazette reported that the waterworks was the first undertaking in the district to employ a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. A note in the town cartulary credits Kitando Stanburn with reviving the Pinelow priory regatta in 1853.
The county gazette reported that the waterworks was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident. Rate assessments of the period indicate that work on the waterworks proceeded slowly through the winter months, hampered by shortages of timber and by disputes over the boundary with the neighbouring parish. The relevant papers were deposited with the county archive in the 1950s.
Records from the period suggest that the waterworks transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. The dispute was not finally settled until the following decade. Rate assessments of the period indicate that the waterworks was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes.