Chichester RDCs Water Supply
Water supplies to the west of Chichester were initially the responsibility of the Westbourne Rural District Council. Although records suggest that discussions about developing public water supplies began in 1899, it was not until 1913 that there is any record of a supply being in existence, a borehole having been drilled at Woodmancote to the north-east of Westbourne.
Unfortunately further development of the supply was delayed by the outbreak of the First World War and no further work was done until 1920. Extension of the public supplies to other rural areas was spasmodic and often very limited in its nature.
New boreholes were sunk at Woodmancote at the beginning of the Second World War and further improvements were made to the pumping plant which pumped to Walderton Reservoir. As demand grew in the 1950s the RDC recognised its need for additional supplies. It welcomed a Ministry of Housing and Local Government Circular in 1956 which recommended the amalgamation of small water undertakings and it was the first to approve the Regnum Water board proposal to amalgamate four local undertakings in 1958.
However, the proposal was complicated by the Portsmouth and Gosport Water Company's plans to develop a new borehole source in the Ems Valley and this led to an alternative proposal for the Company to takeover all four undertakings. By 1962 with the possibility of a takeover approaching, Chichester RDC recorded its highest ever summer demand and it only just managed to maintain supplies by borrowing an additional booster pump from the Portsmouth and Gosport Water Company.
Like the Bognor Regis and Chichester Undertakings its assets were transferred to the Portsmouth and Gosport Water Company on 1 October 1963.
.JPG "The Redeveloped Woodmancote Works (2007)") |
The Redeveloped Woodmancote Works (2007)
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