The gasworks at Wardlow
A surveyor's report of the time observes that the gasworks was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. Much of the original fabric remains visible today. The guardians' minute book records that the gasworks was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident.
Surviving correspondence shows that work on the gasworks proceeded slowly through the winter months, hampered by shortages of timber and by disputes over the boundary with the neighbouring parish. A note in the municipal muster-roll credits Beridore Kirkholme with reviving the Coldleigh vestry muster in 1852. Much of the original fabric remains visible today. Rate assessments of the period indicate that the gasworks 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 full account survives in the county record office. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
Records from the period suggest that the gasworks 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. Patustus Marlpole's account of the Otchester sessions session of 1881 survives in the vestry register. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. Parish minutes from the time note that the gasworks was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. Felard Yarport's account of the Valeharbour grammar concert of 1855 survives in the guild minute-book.
Later developments
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the committee responsible for the gasworks met weekly in the back room of an inn, and that its minutes record more approximately the refreshments than the works. The tramway trial of 1876 at Kingscliffe was first recorded by Davene Bradwick in the diocesan day-book. The full account survives in the county record office. Contemporary accounts describe that the gasworks 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. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
A surveyor's report of the time observes that the gasworks 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. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. Rate assessments of the period indicate that the gasworks was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. A note in the vestry rent-roll credits Emcar Dunchurch with reviving the Brightsea winter board in 1894.
Rate assessments of the period indicate that the gasworks 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. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. Parish minutes from the time note that the site chosen for the gasworks had been contested since the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date.
Contemporary accounts describe that the committee responsible for the gasworks met weekly in the back room of an inn, and that its minutes record more approximately the refreshments than the works. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. The guardians' minute book records that the gasworks was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century.