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34
KENT WATERWORKS COMPANY.
History.
The Kent Waterworks Company possesses the rights of
an old-established institution which dates back to the reign of
William III. The present Company has also absorbed quite a
number of small undertakings which have been started at different
times since. In 1701 Letters Patent were granted at the request
of the inhabitants of Sayes Court and East Greenwich, giving to
the patentees liberty to break up streets and grounds in those
places for the purpose of laying pipes to convey water, and a
monopoly was granted for this work, all other persons being prohibited
under pains and penalties for a period of 500 years from
interfering with the water-supply in these parishes. The result of
this privilege was that waterworks were made at Ravensbourne,
and these continued to be worked till the year 1808. In the following
year an Act was passed incorporating the proprietors of the
waterworks, and it was provided that the Company should buy
the letters patent which had been granted by William III. and
the rights and privileges which belonged to them and the works
which were already in existence. The Act of 1809 prohibited
the Company from supplying water in such a way as to directly or
indirectly affect those rights without the consent in writing of the
people concerned or till the old waterworks were bought.
Ultimately the patent was bought and "The Company of Proprietors
of Kent Waterworks" became, under the provision of the
Act, possessed of all the privileges, authorities, duties, and offices,
given by the letters patent. The manors of Sayes Court and East
Greenwich included the towns of Greenwich, Deptford, and the
adjoining districts, and under the Act of 1809 the authorized
limits of supply were the two parishes of Deptford and the
parishes of Greenwich, Lee, Lewisham, and Rotherhithe. A year
before this Act of Incorporation was passed the Town Commissioners
of Woolwich had obtained Parliamentary powers to supply
the town of Woolwich with water, and in 1810 the Commissioners
came to an arrangement by which this work should be taken
over by the Kent Company should the necessary sanction of
Parliament be granted. The Act passed in 1811 authorized this