Essex and Suffolk Water
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| Private | |
| Industry | Water supply services |
| Parent | Northumbrian Water Group |
| Website | www |
Essex and Suffolk Water is a water supply company in the United Kingdom. It operates in two geographically distinct areas, one serving parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, and the other serving parts of Essex and Greater London. The total population served is 1.8 million. Essex and Suffolk is a 'water only' supplier, with sewerage services provided by Anglian Water and Thames Water within its areas of supply. It is part of the Northumbrian Water Group.
The South Essex Waterworks Company and the Southend Waterworks Company merged to form the Essex Water Company in 1970. In 1994 the Essex Water Company merged with Suffolk Water Company to form Essex and Suffolk Water. Since 2000 it has been part of Northumbrian Water, but continues to trade under the Essex and Suffolk Water name in the area.
The Southend Waterworks Company had its origins in Southend-on-Sea in 1865 when a private undertaking constructed a well in Milton Road. A pumping station pumped the water to a reservoir on Cambridge Road. In 1871, the Southend Waterworks Company Limited was formed, and bought the works. The company became a Statutory Undertaking in 1879, which restricted the amount of money they could borrow, the profits they could retain and the dividend payable to shareholders, but gave them powers to lay pipes beneath public streets and on private land.
By 1924, the company were supplying an area of 160 square miles (410 km2) bounded on the south by the River Thames, on the north by the River Crouch, and stretching westwards to the outskirts of Shenfield. As the volume of water required increased, additional wells were sunk, until there were 36 wells or boreholes in operation. They penetrated a layer of London clay near the surface, and continued into the sands of the Lower London tertiary deposits below that, but the yields obtained were generally poor and gradually diminished over time. In 1921 the company started to look at extracting water from rivers, but failed to obtain parliamentary approval for a joint scheme with the South Essex Waterworks Company to obtain water from the River Stour on the border between Essex and Suffolk. They therefore developed a scheme to extract water from the River Blackwater, the River Chelmer and its tributary, the River Ter. An Act of Parliament was obtained in August 1924, to enable construction of Langford Works, to the west of Maldon.
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