This page looks at the history of Bridgwater’s Gas supply. According to chapter 18 of Jarman’s History of Bridgwater,
1831.—On the 22nd of May, in this year, the Royal assent was given to an Act of Parliament for lighting the town with gas. Works were erected on the Taunton-road by a local company, which is still in existence, and the price was at first fixed at 15s. per 1,000 feet. The promoters of the works being encouraged, they afterwards (Midsummer, 1835) reduced the price to 12s. per 1,000. In a circular announcing this reduction it was urged that gas “ is suitable for sitting-rooms, where it may be used with comfort and economy.” It is interesting to record that the first gas lamp in a shop of the town was lit by Mr. W. J. Ford, in the establishment of a Mr. Edward Jefferies, chemist, in Fore-street. The town was previously lighted with oil lamps, and a man named John Gillingham and his son were paid for doing the necessary work.
The theatre, of which Bridgwater could then boast (situated in Back-street [Clare Street], on the site how occupied by Theatre-place), was one of the first public buildings in which the use of gas was applied. In an interesting theatre programme, now in the possession of Mr. Spencer Cockings, of Bridgwater (printed on silk for the use of the Mayor), dated Monday, December 4, 1837, it is announced that the building will be “ brilliantly lighted with gas, and every attention paid to the fitting of it up, so as to render it perfectly warm and comfortable.” The entertainment for the evening was “Messrs. Walters and Co.’s Mechanical and Picturesque Exhibition.”
