NORTH THAMES GAS PREDECESSORS

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 ACC/0638
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: NORTH THAMES GAS PREDECESSORS
Date(s)	: 1708-1947
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 3.05 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: North Thames Gas Board | 1949-1973 Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Company | 1854-1949 North Middlesex Gas Company | 1862-1949 Gas Light and Coke Company | 1812-1949

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

North Thames Gas Board (1949-1973): one of 12 Area Boards formed when the gas industry was nationalised in 1949, following the passing of the 1948 Gas Bill. Supplied area of 1,059 square miles stretching from Bracknell, Marlow and High Wycombe to the south east coast of Essex. When formed it was made up of a merger of 12 statutory gas undertakings: Ascot and District Gas and Electricity Company, Chertsey Gas Consumers Company; Commercial Gas Company; (Chartered) Gas Light and Coke Company; Hornsey Gas Company; Lea Bridge District Gas Company; North Middlesex Gas Company; Romford Gas Company; Slough Gas and Coke Company; Southend Corporation (Shoeburyness); Uxbridge Gas Consumers Company and Windsor Royal Gas Light Company. The North Thames Gas Board was dissolved in 1973 when it became a region of the British Gas Corporation. Note - Consumers Gas Companies were set up in consequence of dissatisfaction with the existing supplier.

Gas Light and Coke Company (1812-1949): founded in 1812, this was the first company to supply gas to London. The Company absorbed 27 smaller companies and several undertakings during its period of operation, including the Aldgate Gas Light and Coke Company (1819), the Brentford Gas Company (1926), the City of London Gas Light and Coke Company (1870), the Equitable Gas Light Company (1871), the Great Central Gas Consumer's Company (1870), Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company (1876), the Independent Gas Light and Coke Company (1876), the London Gas Light Company (1883), Pinner Gas Company (1930), Richmond Gas Company (1925), Southend-on-Sea and District Gas Company (1932), Victoria Docks Gas Company (1871) and Western Gas Light Company (1873). In May 1949, after the passing of the Gas Bill 1948, the Company handed over its assets to the North Thames Gas Board.

Brentford Gas Light Company (1821-1926): founded in 1821 at the instigation of Sir Felix Booth, the company had works at Brentford and retorts at Southall and covered a wide area including Hammersmith, Kensington, Southall, Twickenham and Richmond. Merged with the Gas Light and Coke Company in 1926.

Harrow and Stanmore Gas Company (1872-1924): Harrow Gas Works founded in 1855 by John Chapman and rebuilt in 1872 as the Harrow Gas Light and Coke Company Limited and became a statutory company as the Harrow District Gas Company in 1873. In 1894 it became the Harrow and Stanmore Gas Company. Merged with the Brentford Gas Company in 1924. Both merged with the Gas Light and Coke Company in 1926.

Pinner Gas Company (1868-1930): founded between 1868 and 1872, merged with Gas Light and Coke Company in 1926.

Hornsey Gas Company Limited (1857-1949): formed in 1857, became statutory in 1866, controlled by the South East Gas Corporation from 1939 and merged with the North Thames Gas Board in 1949.

Staines and Egham District Gas and Coke Company Limited (1833-1915): founded 1833, merged with Brentford Gas Company in 1915.

North Middlesex Gas Company (1862-1949): founded in 1862, with works at Mill Hill.

Uxbridge Gas Company (1841-1861): founded 1841 by T Stacey; faced competition from the new Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Company from 1854 onwards (the companies were known as the 'Old' Gas Company and the 'New' Gas Company). Amalgamated with The Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Company in 1861.

Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Company (1854-1949): formed in 1854 in competition with the Uxbridge Gas Company; became statutory in 1861; after 1918 expanded rapidly and purchased surrounding companies including the Beaconsfield Gas Company, Great Marlow Gas Company and Maidenhead Gas Company. Known as the Uxbridge, Wycombe and District Gas Company from 1921; the Uxbridge, Maidenhead, Wycombe and District Gas Company from 1925 and the South East Gas Corporation from 1936. It merged with the North Thames Gas Board in 1949.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of the North Thames Gas Board, comprising records of predecessor companies, including the Brentford Gas Light Company, the Gas Light and Coke Company, Harrow and District Gas Company, the Harrow and Stanmore Gas Company, North Middlesex Gas Company, Pinner Gas Company, Uxbridge Old Gas Company, the Hornsey Gas Company Limited, and Staines and Egham District Gas and Coke Company Limited, 1708-1947. Records include assignments of interest, leases, releases, fines, copies of wills, mortgages, papers relating to bankruptcy, conveyances, depositions, agreements, deeds, marriage settlements, testimony, bonds, quit rents, correspondence, abstracts of title, Chancery proceedings, sale particulars, licences, engineers reports, Parliamentary Bills and financial accounts for properties, businesses and persons in Acton, Brentford, Ealing, Chiswick, Greenford, Harrow, Hendon, Heston, Hornsey, Isleworth, Northwood, Pinner, Southall, Tottenham, Twickenham and Uxbridge. Also memorandum and articles of association for the Hornsey Gas Company, description of the Hornsey Gas Works, and regulations of the Staines and Egham District Gas and Coke Company Limited.

Papers of the Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Company, 1834-1924, including prospectus; certificates of registration; deed of settlement; list of shareholders; copy of Uxbridge Gas Act; correspondence; petition; handbills and posters; circular letters; notices; bonds; contracts; plan of the houses, lands and buildings situated within a radius of 330 yards from the works of the Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Company, with book of reference listing owners, lessees and occupiers; schedule of repairs; valuation of machinery and apparatus; list of meters; financial accounts; engineers reports; directors' reports; annual reports; agreement for transfer of Maidenhead Gas Company; report of the directors of Great Marlow Gas Company Limited, with account of intended amalgamation with the Uxbridge, Wycombe and District Gas Company; minute books of the Committee of Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers' Company.

Papers of the North Middlesex Gas Company, 1869-1932, including printed account books and reports of the Company.

Papers of the Gas Light and Coke Company, 1896-1929, including agreement between the Warden and College of All Souls, Oxford and the Gas Light and Coke Company to lay gas main through College lands in Willesden and leases of 38 Oxford Road, Kilburn to the Gas Light and Coke Company.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

ACC/0638-1: Uxbridge and Hillingdon Gas Consumers Company; ACC/0638-2: North Middlesex Gas Company; ACC/0638-3: Gas Light and Coke Company.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright rests with the depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Received in 1957 and 1958 (ACC/0638).

Allied Materials

Related material:

For further records relating to North Thames Gas Company predecessors see references ACC/0880 and B/NTG.

Publication note:

For further information about gas companies and works see: E.G.Stewart, "Historical Index of Gasworks past and present in the area now served by the North Thames Gas Board, 1806-1957" (1957) and "Supplement to the Historical Index of Gasworks" (1970); LMA Library reference 24.41 NTGB; and Stirling Everard, "The History of the Gas Light and Coke Company" (1949), LMA Library reference 24.41 EVE. Other works relating to the history of gas supply can also be found at reference 24.4.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
July to October 2009