sutton and east surrey water plc the company headquarters on london road redhill type private industry water supply services founded 1862 headquarters redhill surrey united kingdom website www.waterplc.com sutton and east surrey water is the uk water supply company to its designated area of east surrey west sussex west kent and south london serving in excess of 282 000 homes and businesses and a population of approximately 675 000 people . an area of 322 square miles 830 km2 extending from morden and south croydon in the north to gatwick airport in the south and from cobham and dorking in the west to edenbridge and bough beech in the east forms the company s supply area . contents 1 corporate status 2 history 2.1 east surrey water 2.2 sutton district water 2.3 sutton and east surrey water 2.4 timeline 3 notes and references 3.1 bibliography 4 external links corporate status edit sutton and east surrey water plc is a public limited company registered in england and wales with company number 2447875 that is not stock exchange listed and is east surrey water plc renamed following a 1996 merger see the timeline below . 1 n 1 . history edit surrey has few surface water sources but two major aquifers one of chalk and the other of lower greensand cross the country from east to west . to the north of sutton and east surrey s area the chalk appears as outcrops from the tertiary beds which lie on top of it and there are springs at the bookhams fetcham leatherhead and sutton as a consequence . further south the aquifers are reached by wells with the deepest wells used to extract water from the chalk aquifer . that at polesden lacey is 510 feet 155 m deep . 2 the area was initially served by a number of small water companies each supplying water to its local population . the setting up of water companies was made easier by the waterworks clauses act 1847 which enabled new companies to be created by obtaining a special act rather than needing a full act of parliament . the new legislation meant that the powers of such companies were standardised . 3 sutton and east surrey water has been formed by a number of mergers and takeovers of these smaller companies . east surrey water edit map of the component companies that amalgamated to become sutton and east surrey water the development of a public water supply in the sutton and east surrey area can be traced back to 1859 when a small housing development took place on caterham hill . the builder a mr drew thought he would enhance the value of the development by providing a water supply so constructed a borehole and some short lengths of water main together with a pumping engine . however the costs of running the plant were higher than he had anticipated and he found a group of businessmen who were keen to buy it . following the opening of the london and brighton railway in 1841 a community had been established at red hill or warwick town and as it was growing fast the businessmen were keen to supply it with water . they obtained a special act in 1852 which established the caterham spring water company with a mandate to supply drinking water to bletchingley caterham chaldon coulsdon earlswood godstone nutfield redhill reigate and warlingham . 4 despite early struggles the company developed and by 1880 were supplying water to two thirds of redhill and a number of villages but their water supplies were inadequate and they looked to find other sources . a little to the north the kenley water company had several wells but the area between caterham and purley was at the time sparsely populated and so there were few customers for the water . following discussions between them there was an informal amalgamation in 1881 . parliament sanctioned an extension of their area of supply southwards to the sussex border in 1884 and in 1885 the companies merged to become the east surrey water company . they continued to expand taking over a number of smaller water supply companies . 4 reigate water works company had been established in 1858 to serve the population of reigate and in 1896 opted to sell its assets to east surrey water . the corporation of reigate were unaware of this and when they learned of it attempted to delay the parliamentary bill which would have formalised the deal . when this ploy failed they tried to remove the town clerk from office for his failure to notify the council of the deal . the town clerk was also a director of reigate water works company . reigate corporation also failed in this course of action and so resorted to promoting a rival bill which would have allowed them to alter the rates and charges that east surrey water could set . their action caused widespread hostility in the press and a compromise was eventually reached with east surrey water making small changes to the charges for baths and additional water closets . expansion continued with capital works including 26 miles 42 km of new mains in 1900 and 23 miles 37 km in 1901 . this included a new trunk main from kenley through purley to merstham in 1900 and another from merstham to nutfield in 1901 . a new borehole was built in purley in both years and the company attracted 758 new consumers in 1900 and 551 in 1901 . 3 leatherhead and district water had been established in 1883 drawing its water supply from a series of wells in fetcham just to the west of leatherhead 5 and from a borehole in waterway road . the original buildings lasted until 1992 when they were demolished to make way for housing . 6 leatherhead became the next area to join east surrey water when it was taken over in 1927 . 7 a large pumping station was built in the 1930s next to the original works which was equipped with diesel pumps to transfer the water to the new elmer works on hawks hill . diesel engines were subsequently replaced by electric motors . 6 elmer works is labelled a water softening works on the 1935 ordnance survey map . 8 the source of water for the leatherhead pumping station is still a series of ten artesian wells near the millpond at fetcham . 9 in 1930 two further companies were absorbed chelsham and warlingham water company and limpsfield and oxted water company . 7 following these takeovers east surrey water had 250 000 customers supplying them with around 6 million imperial gallons 27 ml of treated water per day . 4 dorking has had a public water supply from 1738 when a waterworks was built by resta patching a local quaker . the works was close to pipp brook accessible from church street and drew water from a spring . pumps were operated by the flow of the brook but because the water had to be paid for not all of the residents were happy . the spring became polluted in the mid nineteenth century and the works closed . 6 10 there is a building on the site of the works which contains part of one of the original pumps in its cellar and carries a plaque stating r p waterworks erected 1738 but the building itself which is grade ii listed dates from the nineteenth century . 11 the dorking water company was formally established in 1869 following the passing of the dorking water act 1869 . 12 they dug a 300 foot 91 m well on harrow road east . a steam driven pump was housed in a pumphouse and pumped the water to a reservoir on tower hill . in 1902 a new pumping station was built on station road and the old one was converted to housing in 1919 . the second pumphouse was replaced by a new works with boreholes on beech close in 1939 . 6 the company was absorbed by east surrey water in 1959 . 7 the amalgamation was authorised by the east surrey water order 1958 which came into effect on 1 january 1959 . dorking water as a company was dissolved on 4 november 1960 . 13 dorking museum have several documents relating to the early waterworks including records connected with a sale of the waterworks dating from 1848 14 sale of the public waterworks dating from 1850 15 seven maps of dorking at 1 500 scale showing the network of water mains dating from 1868 1870 16 and a poster advertising the sale of machinery from the old waterworks dating from 1878 . 17 east surrey water built a new works on beech close in 1965 with pumping controlled by electric motors and diesel generators to maintain operations during a power cut . 10 in 1968 east surrey water finished building their only surface water reservoir at bough beech . a dam around 0.5 miles 0.80 km long was built at its southern end to create a reservoir which is about 1.25 miles 2.01 km long . five small streams flow through the area and into the reservoir but this only accounts for one fifth of the water supply . the rest is pumped from the river eden from an abstraction point at chiddingstone generally during the winter months . some 50 acres 20 ha at the northern end are set aside as a nature reserve which is managed by the kent ornithological society while the southern end is used for fishing and sailing . 18 since 1999 the adjacent works has included a purpose built education centre which is used by large numbers of school children and the educational programme has been awarded a quality badge by the department for education s learning outside the classroom scheme . 19 sutton district water edit in a quite separate development the sutton and cheam water company was established in 1863 with offices on carshalton road . they built a reservoir where ventnor road meets brighton road and laid a series of water mains within the parish of sutton . they obtained the water from wells dug into the underlying chalk aquifer . another company sutton district water began supplying water to several villages and towns in the neighbourhood and bought the sutton and cheam water company in 1871 . they were by then responsible for supplying potable water to banstead beddington carshalton cheam cuddington ewell morden sutton wallington and woodmansterne . 4 they expanded their sphere of operation in 1910 when they started to supply water to kingswood and built a water tower on tower road tadworth . this enabled them to supply tadworth and the higher parts of banstead . when it became surplus to requirements the water tank was removed from the top and it was converted into a house . 4 sutton and east surrey water edit the two companies merged in 1996 to become sutton and east surrey water plc. it had its head office in redhill and moved into a new building on london road on 2000 . it is responsible for water supply to an area of 322 square miles 835 km2 providing this service to a population of 655 000 and to some 17 000 businesses including gatwick airport . it produces around 35 million imperial gallons 160 ml of treated water per day which it delivered through 2 100 miles 3 400 km of water mains . in order to achieve this it maintains 31 operation service reservoirs and water towers 23 pumping stations eight treatment works and has one surface reservoir at bough beech near edenbridge kent . 4 timeline edit 1862 the caterham spring water company was founded supplying water to caterham coulsdon chaldon warlingham godstone bletchingley nutfield reigate redhill and earlswood . 1863 sutton and cheam water