THE year 1863 will go down in Surrey's history for two reasons. It was the year a royal charter was granted allowing the formation of Reigate as a borough. It was also the year from which the origins of Sutton and East Surrey Water can be traced.
Yesteryear has reported in depth the former. But less is known about the humble but ambitious beginnings of the water company and its progress, survival and growth through two world wars, expansions, mergers, droughts and regulations. Our local water supplier has come a long way in 150 years.
The beginnings of the company started in 1859 when a Mr Drew bought a plot of land on Caterham Hill for a building development. To improve the value of the property he thought it would be a good idea to supply it with water, so he sank a borehole, installed a pumping plant and laid some short lengths of water main.
However, he soon discovered that his project was more costly to run than he had expected. So he willingly sold it to a group of local businessmen. They were interested in establishing a piped water supply to the fast-growing town of "Red Hill" (or Warwick Town) – a small community which had sprung up following the opening of the London to Brighton Railway in 1841.
These businessmen formed Caterham Spring Water, which was established by an Act of Parliament in 1862 to supply water to Caterham, Coulsdon, Chaldon, Warlingham, Godstone, Bletchingley, Nutfield, Reigate, Redhill and Earlswood.
A year later, in 1863, the Sutton and Cheam Water Company was founded in Carshalton Road. Wells were sunk into the chalk, mains were laid in the parish of Sutton and a reservoir was dug at the junction of Brighton Road and Ventnor Road.
In 1871, Sutton District Water took over Sutton and Cheam Water with the expanded company supplying the parishes of Sutton, Cheam, Carshalton, Wallington, Beddington, Morden, Banstead, Woodmansterne, Ewell and Cuddington.
In 1910, Kingswood was added and a water tower was built in Tower Road, Tadworth, to supply the high parts of Banstead and Tadworth. This is now a private residence.
The early years were hard for Caterham Spring Water but by 1880 it was supplying an increasing number of villages and two-thirds of Redhill. With an ever-increasing number of customers it needed another water source.
The Kenley Water Company had boreholes in exactly the right area but in those days there were few houses in the valley between Caterham and Purley and few customers to buy the water. Discussions began between the two water companies and in 1881 they amalgamated, which set the company firmly on its feet.
In 1884, Parliament granted the company an application to extend its supply area to the Sussex boundary. The following year the two companies merged and became East Surrey Water Company. A series of extensions and amalgamations followed and by 1930 the company was supplying 250,000 customers with an average daily consumption of six million gallons.
In April 1996, a new chapter in the companies' history began when Sutton District Water and East Surrey Water merged to form one company, Sutton and East Surrey Water, with its head office in Redhill.
In recognition of the longevity of the company it has recently incorporated "150 years of quality on tap" into its logo. A banner celebrating this historic milestone can be seen adorning the front of its office in London Road at the junction of Frenches Road.
The photo on the banner belongs to a customer whose father and uncle are in the picture.
In the early days of both Sutton District Water and East Surrey Water, the water was pumped from boreholes using long, shaft-driven pumps powered by steam engines at the top, through a series of belts and pulleys.
Treated water was pumped through the mains to customers using pumps driven by similar steam engines. Later, the steam engines were replaced by diesel engines and then by electric motors. The pumping units became cleaner, smaller and used much less energy.
Pipes were originally made by boring through wooden logs with a red hot cannon ball – hence why water mains are called "trunk mains".
Throughout the long combined history of Sutton and East Surrey Water, one of the keys to its success has been the commitment of its employees.
In the 1960s when the two companies were celebrating their 100 years' anniversaries, they had more than 300 employees, one third of which had worked for them for more than 20 years. To this day, you can still find several members of the same family working for the company.
Last year saw the retirement of two of the longest serving members of staff – Bernie Crimp and Bernie Dalton, who between them had completed 103 years of loyal service to the company. And they had a lot more in common than just their names, having been to the same local primary and secondary schools; both started working for Sutton and East Surrey Water at 18, both married ladies named Anne and had two children, and both retired on the same day.
During the Second World War, Sutton District Water formed the Home Guard Factory Unit to defend the company's waterworks.
Anthony Ferrar, the company's managing director, said: "I'm very proud to be the head of a company with such a long and successful history of service to its local community."
Sutton and East Surrey Water opened its new head office in London Road in 2000. It is one of the UK's smallest supply-only water companies. Its network covers 835 sq km and provides about 160 million litres a day to about 655,000 people and 17,000 businesses, including Gatwick Airport.
It has one surface reservoir (at Bough Beech, Edenbridge) eight treatment works, 23 pumping stations and 31 operational service reservoirs and water towers, and maintains 3,400km of mains.
The company's Bough Beech surface reservoir is currently undergoing an upgrade which will almost double its output to 50 million litres per day. Through its popular education programme, the company engages annually with more than 13,000 primary school pupils. It boasts it also has one of the lowest leakage levels in the industry.
The company and the staff are regularly involved in raising money to support WaterAid causes overseas, and local charities such as The Children's Trust in Tadworth. In February this year, Sutton and East Surrey Water was acquired by the Japanese Sumitomo Corporation.
According to the book, A History of Sutton, by Robert P. Smith, prior to 1864, Sutton was without piped water and ale was the popular drink.
Practically the whole village was built on a narrow strip of water-bearing sand which separated the chalk and clay soils. The sand supplied the pumps – at the same time it was a soak-away for the cesspools. Many little alehouses existed to supply a small population.
Yesteryear would like to thank Liz Thorne for supplying much of the history in the above article
