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8 - UTILITIES -
WATER
Originally
under the aegis of several private companies, the water
supply finally came under the unified IoM Gas & Water
Authority. The original Douglas reservoir was situated at
Summer Hill (SC394775); the Clypse, the first additional
supply, opened in 1878 (SC403808), Kerrowdhoo (SC400802) was
opened in 1893 and Baldwin (or Injebreck) was finished in
1905 (SC360802). The southside of the Island is served by
Cringle Reservoir (SC253745) whilst the north is fed from
Ballure (SC454729) which was originally developed by the
Ramsey & Northern Water Board in 1858, and the vast new
Reservoir at Sulby Glen (SC373895). Smaller reservoirs exist
in Glen Rushen (SC247785), Konslieu (SC289781), Eairy
(SC299778) and Michael (SC335893).
UTILITIES -
GAS
Between 1836 and 1898 gas
undertakings were formed to serve Douglas, Castletown and
Port St Mary, whilst the Ramsey Gas Light Co dated from
1857. Each had its appropriate gasworks. Coal gas generation
finally finished in the Island in 1971 with the closure of
Port St Mary gas works, and none of the plants remain
intact, since the changeover to natural gas, imported in
bulk liquid form. The Douglas Gas Company Ltd and the Ramsey
Gas Light Co Ltd (taken over in 1967 by Calor Gas Ltd and
now trading as Calor Manx Gas Ltd) remain trading.
There was a fifth Town Gasworks on
the Island, at Peel. It was built about the same time as the
Ramsey site, after a special Act of Tynwald was passed in
1857. In the 1960s, with the advent of natural gas and LPG,
the Peel Gaslight Co got into financial difficulties (along
with the Castletown and Port St. Mary companies) and had to
be rescued by the taxpayer. The gasholder still remains, but
the bulk of the site has been cleared.
UTILITIES -
ELECTRICITY
Douglas was
the last town of its size anywhere in the British Isles to
be provided with a public supply, the delay being caused by
leaden footed civic pride. The predecessors of the Manx
Electric Railway Co Ltd had promoted electric tramways and
lighting for the Borough from their own supply in 1895. They
already supplied private customers in Port Jack, Onchan and
elsewhere from their power stations, but Douglas Corporation
decided that the supply of utilities by private trading
concerns was not to be countenanced. Instead they procured
consulting engineers' reports on a projected municipal
electricity supply with monotonous regularity: 1898, 1907,
1908, 1911, 1913, 1918 and 1919. The first municipal power
station, built between North Quay and Lord Street (the
fabric of which may still be seen) provided the first public
supply when it opened on May 18 1923 and which quickly
proved to be insufficient in generating capacity. A very
much larger steam turbine station was opened at Pulrose in
1928 and much enlarged in 1935 after means had been found to
reduce the likelihood of flooding, which had caused the
station to be abandoned for some time in September 1930. The
original power station on North Quay continued in use until
it blew up in October 1944.
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The earliest
commercial generation in the Island was provided by the
electric tramway's Derby Castle power station, opened in
1893 and which provided a public supply in Onchan, Port Jack
and elsewhere. Further power stations were built for what
became the MER at Laxey (1894) at the Bungalow (Snaefell
line) 1895 and Ballaglass (1898). The Laxey plant was
augmented by a hydro-generating turbine set using water from
the Laxey River. Inaugurated in 1899 the remains of the
weirs, head and tail races, power house and turbine house
can still be seen. The MER ceased to generate its own power
in 1935 when it was connected to the "All-Island" and
Douglas municipal supplies. The "All-Island" supply was
introduced by the Isle of Man Electricity Board in 1932-3.
Other power stations in the Island included Pigeon Stream on
the Marine Drive, which supplied their electric tramcars on
the Douglas Head&emdash;Port Soderick line. This too ceased
to generate in 1935 when it was connected to the Douglas
supply. Before the coming of the Douglas and later
All-Island supplies, electric power was frequently produced
privately by means of generator sets. A much larger scale
private generating capacity was operated by Mr Bellamy of
Baldrine, who had a small power station on Clay Head Road,
and which supplied several properties in the immediate area
until 1935-6.
Modern generating
stations exist at Peel (which was expected to be the source
for the All-Island supply when opened in 1950, but never
was, and Ramsey Milntown, opened in 1960. Both Peel and
Pulrose have been almost totally re-equipped and enlarged in
the past seven years and all are equipped exclusively with
diesel alternator sets, and the costs to the consumer (up to
four times the UK price equivalent) reflects the enhanced
operating costs of this type of generation and well as the
economics of small-scale production. See MTR 56
(Summer-Autumn 1989)
COMMUNICATIONS
- TELEGRAPHS & TELEPHONES
The first
submarine cable for communications between England and the
Isle of Man was laid between St Bee's Head (Cumbria) and
Port Cornaa in 1864. The Shore terminal hut can still be
seen on the south side of Cornaa Beach. Wireless
installations were provided for signals between Seaforth and
the Government Office in Douglas in 1914; the aerial was
mounted on the roof of the building. This continued in use
as a back-up facility until 1929, when the GPO Telephones
laid a trunk cable from Norbreck (near Blackpool) to Port
Grenaugh. The first call was made by Sir Claude Hill, the
Governor, and HM Postmaster General Leese Smith on June 28
1929. This cable link carried two trunk circuits; by 1955
these had been increased to 60 circuits. A further
radio-telephone link was introduced in 1940 with a station
and generating plant at Creg-na-Baa, augmented by a co-axial
cable link from Holyhead to the Isle of Man. Later and more
recent developments include the provision of microwave
stations in the Island.
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