City of Birmingham Gas

In a sense, Birmingham is the home of gas, as William Murdock came from Cornwall in 1777 to join Boulton and Watt at the Soho Manufactory. There he discovered the use of coal gas for lighting and gave a public display at the Soho works for the celebration of the Peace of Amiens in 1802. A year later the whole of the works was lit by gas.

In 1816 tenders were invited for street lighting by gas, and only one offer was received, from a Mr. Gostling of London, who had already installed lighting in Westminster. The tender was accepted, and he was immediately asked to extend his contract to another 16 streets. As this was beyond his private means, he set up the Birmingham Gas Company by private Act of Parliament. In 1818 Birmingham had its first street lighting by gas, which was manufactured in Gas Street.

The 1849 Kelly’s Director lists the Birmingham Gas Light & Coke Company with works at Gas Street, Fazeley Street, and Windsor Street, and the Birmingham & Staffordshire Gas & Coke Company with its Birmingham works at 57 Adderley Street.

By the 1870s there were 33 municipal gas undertakings in the country. This was at a time when Birmingham reached the peak of its prosperity, and enjoyed the leadership of the Mayor, Joseph Chamberlain, who in 1874 persuaded the Council to vote by 54 votes to two in favour of buying the companies out. An Act of Parliament in July 1875 authorised the deal and the Birmingham Corporation Gas Committee was set up.

From the start, the Birmingham Gas department was a success, making more money which benefited the ratepayers, while gas charges were reduced twice in the first five years. Between 1929 and 1931 the Gas Department installed gas connections and slot meters to about 21,000 court and terrace houses without charge, enlarging its statutory area of operation from 125 to 195 square miles.

By 1938 one-third of the gas produced was used for manufacturing purposes. Gas was still used largely for street lighting, with spectacular high-pressure fittings in Victoria Square, Now Street, Corporation Street, and parts of Hagley Road.

With nationalization in 1949 the undertaking came under the control of the West Midlands Gas Board.

-submitted by Paul Green

Bristol Water Co.

Water was piped in to Bristol as early as 1695, and a canal - which was never built - was planned to link Bath with Bristol in 1811. Neither ever provided enough clean water to satisfy the city's needs or to help prevent the outbreak of disease.

In 1840, a government commission recorded: "There are few large towns in England in which the supply of water is as inadequate as at Bristol." The following year, the Society of Merchant Venturers, a collection of prominent Bristol businessmen, established the Merchant Venturers Water Works. With Isambard Kingdom Brunel as a backer, the group sought to supply water to Clifton and the wealthier parts of Bristol.

In 1845 a rival group formed. They were concerned that these plans were too restrictive and would not provide for the poorer, more densely-populated areas of Bristol. Prominent local citizens involved included William Budd, a pioneer in sanitation; Francis Fry, the industrialist and philanthropist; and George Thomas, the Quaker merchant who founded Bristol General Hospital. Their plan was to supply the whole city, not just Clifton, by bringing in fresh water from the Mendips.

The government weighed up the plans of the two groups, and narrowly came down on the side of the new group. On the 16th of July 1846 the Bristol Waterworks Company was formally established by an Act of Parliament. Only fifteen months later, the first 'sweet clear waters' travelled from Chewton Mendip, via Barrow and the engineering feat of the 16km Line of Works conduit, into the heart of Bristol.

Today Bristol Water now supplies well over a million people. Whilst the Mendips, particularly Chew, Blagdon, and Cheddar Lakes, are vitally important to the local water supply, over half of the supplied water is piped from the Severn via the Sharpness Canal.

There are 6,382 km of local water mains - a far cry from the 16km of the original Line of Works!

-submitted by Paul Green

Britannic Assurance Company Ltd.

Britannic Assurance Company Ltd. was founded in Birmingham in 1866 as British Workman’s Mutual Assurance Company Limited to provide life assurance and pension services.

Britannic went through a series of name changes until settling on Britannic Assurance Company Ltd. in 1921.

In 1981 it changed its name again to Britannic Assurance Plc. It made acquisitions, including Britannia Asset Management, Alba Life, Evergreen Retirement and First Active.

Finally, in December 2006, Britannic Group Plc was merged into Resolution Plc.

-submitted by Paul Green

Aberdare Urban District Council

Aberdare Urban District Council (Glamorgan) was formed in 1894, following the Local Government of England and Wales Act. It took over the functions of Aberdare Local Board of Health. The Council's area of responsibility was the parish of Aberdare, Glamorgan. The Urban District Council ceased to exist on 31 March 1974, and was merged with Mountain Ash and parts of Neath Rural District Council and Vaynor and Penderyn Rural District Council to form Cynon Valley Borough Council.

Walton-le-Dale

Walton-le-Dale is an ancient village in Lancashire. It is home to the church of St Leonard, originally erected in the 11th century, but the community's history goes back to at least Roman times.

According to legend, in 1560 Dr. John Dee summoned a spirit in the churchyard of St. Leonard's and learned the whereabouts of the dead man's wealth and received prophecies the fate of many of the townspeople. Apparently this was not an outrageous assertion in those times.

As for Walton-le-Dale, the local government of this community of 11,000 or so used commercial overprints on at least SG 573 and 727.

East and West India Dock Company

The East India Company's principle warehouse in the City of London was the Cutler Street complex, constructed in the late 18th century. The West India Dock Road was a toll road laid out in 1802 as part of the Commercial Road to transport company goods from the East India Dock to the City of London. In 1838, after it's monopoly ran out (1833), the East India Dock Company ran into financial difficulties and decided to merge with the West India Dock Company to form the East and West India Dock Company.

In 1866 the company negotiated an 80-year lease for
their building. Among the uses of the warehouses during this period was the storage of tea.

The freehold of the warehouses was acquired in the 1880s. The company struck a medal commemorating the opening of the East and West India Dock Company's Tilbury Docks in 1886.

The companies were eventually incorporated into a single entity called "The Port of London Authority".

Map of Local Government Overprints on SG 518

There are many ways we can organize information about commercial overprints. For example, to see a map of all the reported local governments that used commercial overprints on issue SG 518, click here.

You can make maps of your own using Google's "My Maps" feature.