| Description | The Chester Gaslight Company was formed in 1817 by Deed of Settlement and remained a non-statutory company. Its works were in Cuppin St and were built by Samuel Clegg. Pressure from the Chester Watch Committee and public dissatisfaction with costs led to a number of attempts to establish a rival undertaking in the town. A complete reorganisation of the works in 1845 attempted to inprove efficiency and bring down costs. In 1850 a rival company tried to establish itself - the Chester Gas Consumers Co, though this failed to raise enough capital to launch properly. In 1851 an engineer from Birkenhead gasworks, Samual Highfield, built a second gasworks at Roodee on the outskirts of Chester and entered a provisional agreement with Chester Corporation to provide gas from the works. The Roodee Gas Co was formed by Deed of Settlement in 1854 but soon entered into negotiations with the Chester Gaslight Co to amalgamate. The Chester United Gas Co was formed in August 1856 with the chairman, E. Salisbury, formerly of the Roodee Gas Co. The Roodee works were rebuilt in 1880 and a series of Acts of Parliament extended the area of supply to surrounding villages. There are minute books, property records and some technical records in this collection. |