Water contaminated by Tickhill’s Gas Works

Joseph Denton, a whitesmith, established gas works on land behind what is now the Library c.1860. This must have been welcomed initially because it gave local people the opportunity to light their homes with gas rather than candles or oil lamps. However, those residents living closest to the gas works discovered a major disadvantage: apart from the smell and smoke, their water supply became contaminated. The Hartshorn family lived next door in the building now occupied by Juicy Fruits and The Barber Shop. In 1871 the household consisted of Michael Hartshorn, a farmer of 100 acres aged 75, his wife Ellen aged 64, sons Thomas and Michael aged 33 and 29, two farm servants Joseph Bingham, 17, and John Milner, 14, and domestic servant Mary Smith, 22.

Letters about their contaminated water written by the Hartshorns to the Local Government Act Office in London havebeen saved in The National Archives (ref: MH13/182/206 and MH13/182/207). Not only are the letters of interest but also the scribbled comments by civil servants indicating how the government department and the Local Board should respond to them. The first letter to the LGAO was sent by Michael Hartshorn on 21 March 1871:

Sir
Allow me to inform you that we have a property joining my house where I live a Gas place the smoke and smell are very offensive and what is worse it has got to the water in our well and also others around it. I have had the Inspector of Nuisances to look at and taste the water he pronounces it to be very bad. I have also called our doctor and druggist in, they forbid us drinking the water as it affects the health of my family and they advised me to lay the case before the Tickhill Local Board. I have done so. The doctor and the Inspector remarked that our water is unfit to drink. The Local Board remarked that the smoke and smell being a public nuisance must be abated but said the water is a private nuisance and so they refuse to act. Will you be so kind as to inform me to whom I ought to apply for redress, as the health of my family is seriously affected and we have all our water to fetch from a distance. Your reply by return of post will oblige. [An additional note at the end of the letter said: ‘The Gas Place is private property. The owner got no act of parliament or any ones leave to make it but a board surveyor. We have complained to him often about it and he takes no notice.’]
Yours respectfully
Michael Hartshorn
Please to address M Hartshorn, Farmer, Tickhill.

Four months later the problem had not been solved and so Ellen Hartshorn wrote to the LGAO on behalf of her husband on 20 July 1871:

Sir
I am advised to inform you that we have complained to the members of our local board about the nuisance we suffer from by the gas works spoiling our water, and they treat it as a private affair but refuse to take any steps in the matter. I enclose a certificate from our medical attendant to show how I have suffered from drinking the water and our servants have all been separately made sick by it also one who has lived with us five years has given us notice to leave unless the water becomes pure again. We are under the necessity of sending a considerable distance for water to supply
our family with - which is a serious inconvenience. Will you be so kind as to inform me what we must do in the case. A magistrate resident in this place has smelled the stench from the spout of our pump and declares it to be strongly impregnated with gas – all the wells round the gas works are affected alike one family has not tasted their water for a length of time. 
Your answer will oblige me at your convenience. Meanwhile I am sir very respectfully yours
E Hartshorn for Michael Hartshorn.

A note also dated 20 July 1871 and signed by Dr G G Phillips accompanied this letter:

I hereby certify that I attended Mrs Michael Hartshorn during the months of March and April last, and she was suffering from Subacute Gastritis arising from the use of impure water.

A civil servant’s note in black ink at the end of Michael Hartshorn’s letter said: ‘Quote to him 23rd and 24th ch/section N R Act 1855. Say that either he or local authority empowered to proceed for penalty under this section and send a copy of this letter to the clerk of the L Brd.’ In red ink – ticked, initialled and dated 25/3/71. The advice referred to an Act to consolidate and amend the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Acts, 1848 and 1849 consolidation and amendment 14 August 1855*. Section 23 makes clear that any person or company engaged in the manufacture of gas who pollutes water supplies ‘shall forfeit for every such offence the sum of two hundred pounds’. Section 24 adds that the penalty and costs may be recovered by the person affected or the local authority provided the action is taken during the continuance of the offence, or within six months after it has ceased. Clearly the Local Board did not act on this as Mrs Hartshorn wrote again to the LGAO. The civil servant’s note on her letter reiterated that it was for the Local Board to proceed for penalties.

The minutes of the Local Board, which would show its point of view on this matter, are held by Doncaster Archives, but it is not possible to access any material held by Doncaster Archives until the new facility in the former museum and art gallery is eventually completed. There is no evidence that Joseph Denton was prosecuted but another solution was found. A new company was formed in 1872: Tickhill Gas Light and Coke Co Ltd; the gas works were relocated to the eastern end of Sunderland Street opposite the Toll House and Joseph Denton was put in charge until 1873 when an advertisement appeared in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph on behalf of the new company to recruit ‘a clever practical man who thoroughly understands the business of gas making’. No doubt it was a great relief to the Hartshorns that, with the removal of the gas works, their water supply would no longer be contaminated.
*
For full details of the Act see website: legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1855/121/pdfs/ukpga_18550121_en.pdf
For details about gas works see website: www.nationalgasmuseum.org.uk