The Electricity Supply, 1887-1934

<p>See R Acock, Electricity Comes to Cheltenham (Glenside Books, 1995) for more detailed information</p>

Between 1889 and 1890 six private companies applied to the Board of Trade for an order to provide electricity for street lighting in Cheltenham. In the light of their unhappy experiences with the privately owned water and gas companies, the Borough Council was unwilling to allow the supply of electricity to be controlled by another private company. The Council obtained a provisional order in the spring of 1890 and undertook to put forward a scheme within two years. After much discussion, the Borough Surveyor's scheme was accepted and the power station in Arle Road was finally opened in May 1895. A formal dinner was held in the Plough Hotel to celebrate the event.

Between 1899 and 1912 the Council obtained Orders to extend the electricity supply first within the Borough itself and then to include Charlton Kings, Leckhampton, Prestbury, Swindon Village, Bishops Cleeve and Up Hatherley. There was strong local opposition led by the Directors of the Cheltenham Gas Light & Coke Co. who were alarmed by the threat to their monopoly and the Cheltenham RDC who felt that the rates would increase but the majority of their ratepayers would not benefit from the service.

By 1904 it was clear that the power station was not making the expected profits and was costing much more than anticipated to run. This was attributed mainly to inefficient organization so the administration was reorganized and both the Electric Lighting Committee and the Electrical Engineer were supervized more closely by the Council.

The Electricity (Supply) Acts, 1919 and 1922 set up the Electricity Commission under the control of the Department of Transport to encourage the formation of Joint Electricity Authorities which could supply a wider area and reduce costs. Two private companies on the border of the areas supplied from Cheltenham and Gloucester threatened to poach rural consumers so the two Borough Councils worked together to suggest the building of a new power station on the Castle Mead in Gloucester to supply the combined area.

By 1932 the electricity for the whole of the Cheltenham area was supplied by the Shropshire, Worcestershire & Staffordshire Electric Power Co. and the power station in Arle Road was closed.

The Borough Council had an uneasy relationship with the privately owned Cheltenham Gas Light and Coke Co. The Company viewed the installation of electricity and the subsequent extensions of the area supplied both for street lighting and domestic use as a threat to their profits and led the opposition to all the Council's proposals to extend the electricity supply and therefore their profits. As a counter-measure in the late 1920s the Gas Co. proposed to enlarge the gas works in Cheltenham and extend the area it supplied. This was opposed by the Borough Council and also by the Country Council who feared large scale damage to the highways as new pipes were laid.