TS job is to provide water to Bournemouth and the New Forest – but its contribution to the area is even bigger than that.

Sembcorp Bournemouth Water is marking the 150th anniversary of its predecessor companies with the publication of a book.

The book, Confluence: 150 Years of Service 1863-2013, makes clear the role the businesses have played in the life of their towns.

Confluence starts in the 19th century, when Bournemouth was a new resort whose infrastructure was nothing special.

The book notes: “This was a particular embarrassment when city-dwellers from the capital began to arrive in their droves, expecting such a modern town to at least possess similar conveniences to those of their homes.”

An act of Parliament soon provided for such basics as paving, sewerage, drainage and lighting. But there was still no mention of water supply –until a proposed visit by Queen Victoria, which never materialised, prompted the town’s board of commissioners to sort out the problem.

The Bournemouth Gas and Water Company was created in September 1863 and work soon began to take water from Kinson Brook and collect in culverts that ran into reservoirs. There were six customers connected by the end of 1864, starting with a market garden in Cambridge Road, but 185 customers five years later, with the number quadrupling by 1873.

Wells were sunk at Bourne Valley and then at Springbourne, whose well fed a 160,000 gallon water tower at Palmerston Road, Boscombe, that remained in use for 100 years.

It took slightly longer for the gas infrastructure to be established, but by the turn of the 20th century, gasworks at Bourne Valley were working at full capacity to meet growing demand.

Christchurch residents were still obtaining water from wells or the town’s mill stream long after Bournemouth had domestic water supplies.

The establishment of the South West Suburban Water Company and then the West Hampshire Water Company finally brought piped water to Christchurch in 1894 – some 30 years after its neighbour.

Confluence goes on to tell of the rapid expansion of the gas network as World War I approached, requiring a self-contained gasworks near the existing site on reclaimed mudlands at Pitwines in Poole Harbour.

It tells how West Hampshire Water Company acquired the valuable Royalty Fishery on the River Avon at Christchurch.

It also relates the story of Bournemouth Gas and Water’s showrooms. A showroom had existed on Old Christchurch Road, opposite Bournemouth’s Horseshoe Common, in 1911, but in 1925 the company bought the building next door occupied by Godfrey’s Music Emporium, and both were demolished to make way for a new headquarters and showroom.

New showrooms were also built at Beech Hurst in Poole, and at Moordown; but the one opened in Christchurch Road, Boscombe, in 1933 was perhaps the most impressive, built in striking art deco style.

Bournemouth Gas and Water had a thriving social club and a popular band, and it had some notable sports teams.

Its football team, which became Gasworks Athletic in 1923, went all the way to the finals of the FA Amateur Cup at West Ham’s Upton Park ground in 1930, only to lose 5-1 to Ilford.

ROLE IN WW2 AIR RAIDS

During World War II, with more than 570 staff enlisted in the armed forces, the utility companies still managed to provide volunteer firefighters.

They played a part in the aftermath of Bournemouth’s worst air raid, when Beales and the Metropole Hotel took direct hits on May 23 1943.

The company’s staff were on the scene, extinguishing the fire and repairing the mains.

When Corporation workmen placed red danger lamps around the crater in front of Beales, the paraffin in the lamp reignited escaping gas, and the fire crew had to go back to work.

After the war, Bournemouth Gas and Water had the gas side of its operation nationalised, losing much valuable equipment and some leading staff in the process.

The book chronicles the corporate changes since then – the two companies’ acquisition by Biwater in 1989, their amalgamation in 1993, and their transformation into Sembcorp Bournemouth Water in January 2011.

It records the improvements in the network, including a 10-year, £65million capital investment programme begun in 1994, and the remarkable achievement of never having to introduce a hosepipe ban.

But the casual reader might be struck by how the business’s history is so closely intertwined with that of the towns it serves.

Confluence costs £13.99 plus postage from authorsonline.co.uk and is available in libraries across Sembcorp Bournemouth Water’s area of supply.