History
A village that acted
Many communities are passive, waiting for a changing world to impose progress upon them; others look to the world around them and take it upon themselves to undertake change for the better. One of the latter is the small village of Fenny Compton tucked away in rural south Warwickshire in the evening shadow of the escarpment that forms the northern border of the Cotswolds.
Hearing of progress in education in 1833 the village funds a school room by public subscription, the names of those that could only afford a few pennies being recorded with greater benefactors – a sign of a progressive and inclusive society with an action that predates the much more widely known Victorian educational reforms by nearly 50 years. Later a washroom is added giving access to a level of hygiene that must have been unheard of in a world where many of the amenities we take for granted today were absent. A community that actively seeks to make a better present and future for all its inhabitants.
It was also a time of wider social change with the awareness of the need to manage public health as society becomes more urbanised and the sweeping epidemics of cholera and typhoid crossed the nation. Combine that with inspirational leadership in the community and you have a catalyst for change with the design of an improved water supply funded by the Rector Charles to provide a fresh water supply to the community.
In another way he conferred an important practical benefit on the parish. When he first became rector, there was no other water in the village than what was procured from a brook that ran through it, and, of course, received continual accessions of impurity on its way. A temporary arrangement at first conveyed the water in a covered drain from one end of the village to another with pumps placed a convenient intervals.
1841
That was 1841 with a 1,184-yard-long covered channel being dug through the village from "Reading's Plantation" with hand pumps along its length. However the quality of the water was still considered poor and the Companies Act of 1862 provided a structure for funding an improved supply by the issuing of share capital.
But still the water often got polluted and the drains out of order. Fever was very frequent. When the alarm of cholera in England arose, it was determined to catch the water at its source, before it fell into the brook. Happily, the spring rose at a height considerably above the village, not further distant than three quarters of a mile. It was copious, and have never been known to fail. The difficulty was about the funds. This was surmounted by the formation of a water company, limited, with shares at £2 each. The shares were all taken up within the parish, two of the leading farmers, Mr. Reading and Mr. Knott cordially co-operating, and the Rector himself taking fifty shares. The water conveyed in pipes to a tank still considerably above the village, and thence throughout the village, in a good many instances into the houses, not seldom into the cottages, and at intervals into covered fountains into the open street. The principal houses pay from 5s to 20s a year, the cottages from 1s to 2s6d. The total cost did not exceed £500, and financially the scheme proved a success, as the shareholders have received five per cent. Upon their capital since it was started. The health of the village was materially improved by this wise plan of sanitary engineering.
From the "Life and Letters of Edward Lee Hicks", J H Fowler, 1922
28th September 1866
On the 28th September 1866 the investors met in the new school room (funded by Charles Heurtley), signed a memorandum of association and pledged the capital to create the Fenny Compton Water Company Limited. A spring is "tapped", pipes are laid, taps plumbed in and "pure & wholesome", water from the source is suddenly available to the people of the parish. And here the motivation becomes apparent with the parent who has lost children donating his shares to charity for the dividends to be used to provide water to the poor. A simple testament, written in italic hand on the reverse of a share certificate. We are a company that has always had a strong association with the community we serve. This provision of free water to the needy continued into the later 1920s under various guises, latterly "Thomas-Blick Reading's Water Company Charity".
The village keeps its water
The passage of time has passed over our supply, great events in history and continued social change have had little impact on our operations. When the mains supply was connected in the 1950s the community voted to keep "their" water, a feature of the inclusive nature of our commune. So rather than being assimilated into ongoing consolidation of the water supply industry we are one of, if not the only, water company remaining from over 1000 recorded in the Water Undertakings of 1914.
Today
Today, gravity continues to take the water from the top of the hill to the bottom. The Rector and Churchwardens still hold their shares should they be called upon to provide a supply to the parish poor. The only significant difference being in the definition of "pure and wholesome". Though, once it was enough simply to connect a spring to a tap; today, in a more regulated world, a degree of, non-chemical, treatment is required to ensure that what our customers drink is as good or, as we like to think, superior to that provided by the major water companies and fully compliant with the stringent requirements set out in the national regulations.
And, if you have read this far, you may be interested in our future. Well, we think gravity will be with us for the foreseeable, the spring continues to give a constant supply and we have customers who appreciate the unique quality of the water they drink. All being well we will continue to deliver on that simple goal of "pure and wholesome, for all" for generations to come.