Catalogue description UXBRIDGE, MAIDENHEAD, WYCOMBE & DISTRICT GAS COMPANY

This Collection contains administrative and financial records as well as drawings and cuttings.

Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Company

Uxbridge, Maidenhead, Wycombe and District Gas Company

The first works in Uxbridge were privately built by Mr T. Stacey on Iver Road in 1830 and sold gas on a rental basis only. The undertaking was taken over by the Uxbridge Gas Co. in 1841. The Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Co. was formed as a non-statutory company in 1854 in response to consumer dissatisfaction with the Uxbridge Gas Co. and built its own works on Cowley Mill Road which remained operational until 1968. The Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Co. gained statutory powers in 1861 and in the same year took over the old company and closed the Iver Road works.

In 1907 the company took over the first of many smaller, local undertakings; Colnbrook gas works was built in 1865 and was privately owned until 1905 when it was sold to the West Surburban Gas Light & Coke Co. The works remained operational until 1909 when it was converted to a holder station. In 1908 the Uxbridge Co. took over the Beaconsfield Gas Company, their works were closed in 1912, but the two small holders remained in use until 1922. In 1911 the Uxbridge company purchased the Amersham Gas Light & Coke Co. which had gone into liquidation the previous year. The Amersham works were retained and new holders built, the mains were extended to Great Missenden, Saratt and Beaconsfield to meet demand. The works were closed in 1950 but the site continued as a holder station. In 1916 the Eton GC was purchased by Uxbridge & Hillingdon Gas Consumers Co. the Eton works were closed and a bulk supply was taken from the Windsor company, in 1920, the Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Co. acquired the High Wycombe Gas Light and Coke Co. and became the Uxbridge, Wycombe and District Gas Co. They continued to update and operate the Desborough Rd works, in High Wycombe. Marlow Gas Co. and its undertaking on Cambridge and Dean Street was taken over in 1922. The works remained operational until supply was provided by a grid main in 1951, when the site was converted to a holder station, in 1925 the Uxbridge Company took over the Maidenhead Gas Co. and its works at Taplow, which continued to operate until 1949 when it was converted to a holder station, in 1936 the Uxbridge, Maidenhead, Wycombe and District Gas Co. came under the control of the South Eastern Gas Corporation. On nationalisation in 1949 it vested in the NTGB.

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