Page 318 - Reading Mercury

The cost of the works, including the main piping for Wokingham, he estimated
would be £12,000. Mr. Grover then contrasted the cost of the water supply of many
towns of varying size with the cost of the proposed supply for Wokingham, especially
mentioning Chichester and Newbury, in which the works had lately been opened. The
cost of the waterworks per head of the population at Chichester was £1 13s 6d; in
Swindon, £3 10s, and in other towns an average of £2 10s per head, while the
proposed Company’s Works for Wokingham would only cost about £1 10s per head
on the population of the district.
Having referred to the importance of obtaining a supply of water from the chalk,
Mr. Grover said a well managed Company could expect an income of from 4s to 5s
per head, or about £1 2s 6d per house, either of which tests would represent in this
district £10 per cent, on the whole capital after a fair allowance for working expenses.
The maximum charge for supply was fixed by the Company’s provisional order at a
rate of about 1s 6d in the pound on the annual rack rent or value of premises supplied
and he thought the Company deserved the support of the town in its endeavour to
supply a great and pressing public need.
Mr. F.L. Soames, solicitor, explained that the Company was limited, having a
capital of £20,000 in 2,000 shares of £10 each, the whole of which need not of course
be called up.
Mr. Grover having replied to questions asked by the meeting as to the cost of the
piping and sinking.
Mr. W.L Beale proposed—“That this meeting having heard an explanation of the
objects of the Wokingham District Water Company, expresses its approval of the
scheme, and its confidence in the benefit to the town and district.
Mr. Goodchild in seconding the resolution alluded to the value of the supply in case
of fire as well as from the sanitary and public utility points of view.
The resolution was carried unanimously, many of those present expressing a desire
to take shares.
A vote of thanks to the Chairman concluded the meeting.

nd
Sat 22 June
WOKINGHAM DISTRICT WATER COMPANY
In another column of today’s mercury is advertised the prospectus of this newly-
formed Company, the capital of which of £20,000, in 2,000 shares of £10 each. The
order of the Board of Trade, which has been confirmed by Parliament, and received
th
the Royal assent on the 17 inst., empowers the company to establish waterworks for
the supply of the district comprising the town and parish of Wokingham, and the
parishes of Binfield, Warfield, Easthampstead and Sandhurst. The well and pumping
station will be placed on a site near the Finchampstead road, between the brook and
the SE Railway, and the reservoir on Windmill Hill.
The engineer (Mr. JW Grover), and Mr. Whitaker, one of the geologists of the
Geological Survey, are of opinion that an ample supply of pure chalk water will be
obtained at a depth of about 400 feet; it will be pumped up to the reservoir, which is at
an elevation sufficient to supply nearly the whole district, the population of which is
estimated at a total of over 13,000 persons, occupying nearly 2,400 houses. Mr.
Landsdowne-Beale is one of the Directors of the Company to which Mr. James Watts
is the secretary.

Sat 2nd Nov
ALTERATION TO POST OFFICE REGULATIONS

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