PUBLIC SERVICES.
A gas works was built
west of New Street in 1849 by William Edwards
(d. 1863). (fn. 32) It was sold in 1864 to the Oakengates
and St. George's Gas and Water Co. Ltd., (fn. 33)
which was in turn bought by the Wellington
(Salop) Gas Co. in 1922. (fn. 34) By 1882 the Hadley &
Trench Gas Works stood on the south-western
edge of Trench Pool, and in 1912 the Hadley,
Trench, and Wrockwardine Wood Lighting Co.
Ltd. supplied gas to Oakengates urban district
council. (fn. 35) The company was bought by the
Wellington (Salop) Gas Co. in 1930. (fn. 36)
Electricity became available in the 1930s. (fn. 37)
In 1892 water supply in Oakengates was said to
be 'as bad as it can be, . . . scanty, . . .
inaccessible, . . . contaminated or liable to it',
coming from rainwater butts or 'dip' wells if it
could not be begged from one of the few pump
wells. Soft water was bought for washing. Ketley
Bank was as ill-supplied as Oakengates. Houses
belonging to the Lilleshall Co. tended to be better
served and the company was at that time improving the water supply by tapping pit water.
Contamination was unavoidable as the area was
sewered either not at all or ineffectively: the more
recently developed streets had sewers, but they
generally discharged into open ditches that passed
other houses before draining into settling tanks
below the town. Most houses, many with shared
closets, had cess pits, many of them open. Other
households had pails and threw sewage into their
yards or the street. The disposal of ash and
domestic refuse was just as erratic. In general only
the Lilleshall Co. properties enjoyed the attention, albeit irregular, of a scavenger. (fn. 38)
Water supply to Oakengates was improved in
the 1900s despite the abandonment of a major
scheme of 1904. The Lilleshall Co.'s supply was
transferred to the U.D.C. between 1901 and
1918; from 1913 it included water from the duke
of Sutherland's Redhill reservoir fed from Hilton
(Staffs.). (fn. 39) For a time, before 1946, Ketley Bank
was supplied with water purchased from the
borough of Wenlock and conveyed through
Dawley U.D.C. and Wellington rural district
council mains, but that arrangement proved
unsatisfactory and Ketley Bank was linked c. 1946
to the Oakengates main system. (fn. 40)
The U.D.C. built the Trench Farm sewage
works, Hortonwood, in 1904-5; (fn. 41) it was one of
those replaced by the Rushmoor works,
Wrockwardine, opened in 1975. (fn. 42)
A child-health centre opened in Oakengates in
1918. In 1936 it moved to a site in Stafford Road,
where it remained in 1983. (fn. 43) The U.D.C. helped
to maintain an ambulance service for Wellington
rural district until 1945. (fn. 44)
Fear of air raids led to the provision of several
'fire boxes' containing hoses, etc., in 1916; the
nearest fire engine was then at Wellington. (fn. 45) After
the Second World War the county council
provided a retained fire station at Oakengates. (fn. 46) It
closed in 1980 when Telford central fire station
opened at Stafford Park industrial estate. (fn. 47)
Oakengates had one police constable in 1840 (fn. 48)
and a post office by 1856. (fn. 49)