GAS FOR WALTON-LE-DALE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESTON CHRONICLE.
SIR,-I was glad to observe a lotter in your correspondence columns, a week or two ago, having reference to the desirability of lighting the streets of Walton Village, Higher Walton, and Bamber Bridge with gas, and I was in fall expectation a more able and a more influential pen than mine would have supported the suggestions of your correspondent. As no one has volunteered to show his willingness, through the medium of your valuable newspaper, to pat his shoulder to the wheel and to assist your correspondent’s idea, I may, perhaps, be allowed to offer a few remarks relating to the matter.
Your correspondent suggests that the village of Walton, Higher Walton, and Bamber Bridge be lighted with gas. I should be very glad to assist in obtaining such a boon for the three places mentioned, but I am afraid that, in the absence of a Local Board for the township, and all compulsory means to make people pay their share towards the cost incurred in the erection of lamps and of supplying gas thereto, you could not get the inhabitants of the three places to come to a mutual agreement on the question. Now, I think that it would be better for each place to take charge of its own lighting, and for this reason: Through the village of Walton the gas company at Preston have main pipes, from which the pipes to the houses are supplied, and it would be an easy matter to supply from the main pipes the lamps, if erected. To Higher Walton and Bamber Bridge the company, I believe, have no pipes, and to light these two places pipes would of necessity have to be put down. This would put the gas company to an enormous expense, and, of course, they would not forget to make an endeavour to get back their outlay in charging an extra price for the gas consumed. The villagers now pay 10d. per thousand feet more for gas than Prestonians; so what would the price of gas be at Higher Walton and Bamber Bridge, both places being about a couple of miles further off? You could hardly got the people of Walton village, in their sober, sober senses, to agree to pay for the erection of lamps in. the village and for the gas supplied thereto, and after-wards to bear a portion of the cost of erecting lamps and of the gas supplied to Bamber Bridge and Higher Walton. The village of Walton is certainly more advantageously situated in respect to introducing gas light into the streets, and on this ground the Waltonians will be somewhat chary in agreeing with the residents of the other two villages to share in the general cost of lighting
the township. Gas lamps at present extend from Preston to Walton Bridge, the boundary of the township of Walton-le-dale on the Preston side, and I believe there is no one who will say that it is not highly desirable, nay, even necessary, that the lamps should be extended through the village. I should, therefore, like to impress upon my neighbours in the village the necessity of calling a meeting amongst ourselves, for the purpose of considering the suggestion of lighting the village only, so far as we are concerned, leaving the inhabitants of Bamber Bridge and Higher Walton to take such means as they feel disposed, to
Gas lamps at present extend from Preston to Walton Bridge, the boundary of the township of Walton-le-dale on the Preston side, and I believe there is no one who will say that it is not highly desirable, nay, even necessary, that the lamps should be extended through the village. I should, therefore, like to impress upon my neighbours in the village the necessity of calling a meeting amongst ourselves, for the purpose of considering the suggestion of lighting the village only, so far as we are concerned, leaving the inhabitants of Bamber Bridge and Higher Walton to take such means as they feel disposed, to procure lights in the streets of their respective places of residence.
If each place paid the cost of the lights in its streets, I think a better feeling would prevail than if the cost of lighting the whole township was lumped together.
A very small rate would defray the cost of lighting Walton village, and I have no doubt that if a meeting were called, every ratepayer and every householder in the village would willingly consent to bear an equal share of the burden. Let us try to do something to get out of the dark, to prevent the many personal collisions which take place, and to give greater safety to people passing through the village at night in vehicles.
Hoping you will pardon me, Mr. Editor, for having trespassed on your space so lengthily, I remain, yours truly,
ONE IN WANT OF LIGHT.
Walton village,
Nov. 22, 1866.
CORRESPONDENCE.
Date: Saturday, Nov. 24, 1866
Publication: Preston Chronicle
Gale Primary Sources, British Library Newspapers:
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/Y3207468966/BNCN?u=lancs&sid=bookmark-BNCN&pg=6&xid=ee5ea2d1
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GAS FOR WALTON-LE-DALE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESTON CHRONICLE.
SIR, I read with much pleasure the letter of your correspondent “One in want of Light,” and should be glad if his communication have the effect of getting our village lighted. He is, however, mistaken in one or two minor points. There are gas mains all the way to Bamber Bridge, and the inhabitants of that district pay the same price for their gas as the people in Walton village, all consumers outside the borough of Preston paying 10d. a thousand more for gas than the inhabitants of Preston. There could, therefore, be no objection to lighting the lanes of Bamber Bridge as well as those of Walton village, or, for that matter, all the way between the two places. With Higher Walton the case is different; there, if it were thought desirable to have the lanes lighted, an arrangement would have to be made with some producer of gas, say Messrs. Rodgett, as the Gas Company’s mains do not extend thither. To effect these objects, the simplest plan would be to established a Local Board for the township, as has been done at Fulwood; the board in that township light the Park and Watling-street, and a lighting district has been formed, outside which the rates to pay for the lamps, &c., are not levied. Had there been a Local Board for Walton, as there is at Fulwood, Walton might now probably have had its gas at the same price as Fulwood, no excess on the Preston rate. Your obedient
servant,
Walton, November 29, 1866.
LUX.
CORRESPONDENCE.
Date: Saturday, Dec. 1, 1866
Publication: Preston Chronicle
Gale Primary Sources, British Library Newspapers:
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/Y3207469003/BNCN?u=lancs&sid=bookmark-BNCN&pg=6&xid=5bb5a8e0
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A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. For two or three weeks back our correspondence columns have contained letters suggesting that the lanes of the village of Walton be lighted with gas. It is certainly somewhat strange that a village like Walton (situated as it is within a couple of milos of Preston, with a population bordering upon 90,000) through which there is much traffic to and from the south, has not had gas introduced into its lanes ere this. Hitherto there has not been a single public light in the village, and pedestrians and others have been compelled to grope their way in the dark through the lanes in the best way they could. A gas lamp, however, has just been fixed near to Messrs. Calvert and Son’s mill, and this no doubt, will confer a great boon on the inhabitants re-siding in its immediate vicinity, and perhaps induce a further extension of lamps.
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.
Date: Saturday, Dec. 1, 1866
Publication: Preston Chronicle
Gale Primary Sources, British Library Newspapers:
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/Y3207469031/BNCN?u=lancs&sid=bookmark-BNCN&pg=4&xid=635097ce
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