7 replies to this topic

[Alan]

My late Dad who went to Prescot Grammar School in the early 1920s was besotted with the town despite living in Earlstown at the time. One of the things he told me was that Prescot was the first town in England to have electricity generation and the town owned its own power station. Can anyone confirm this?

[Thumpa lumpa]

I think you will find Alan, it was BICC who generated the electric for Prescot I recall my Mum telling me about it when I was young.

[Phyll]

Hi Alan, I think the first town in England was Godalming, Surrey.

Here is a bit of history for you, regarding BICC and Electricity.

http://www.prescotpa...rescot/bicc.htm

http://www.engineeri...ctricity_07.asp

http://en.wikipedia...._power_industry

Edited by Phyll, 03 February 2012 - 06:57 AM.

[leschip]

Alan, I'm with TL on this one. A chap named Giussepe Green was the lead engineer, he is buried in the old Churchyard.

[stephen nulty]

The BI also provided electric street lighting and I believe that this made Prescot one of the first towns to have such lighting.

Generating its own electricity also meant that the BI was largley immune from the power cuts in the 1970's. I recall that they used to announce over the tannoy which parts would have to close if the power needed to be rationed. Sadly, the Drum Shop, where I worked, was never affected and we were never sent home early.

I also think that the BI generated the power for Whiston Hospital, though that may have just been a rumour.

[halj]

Electricians at the B.I where on a higher rate of pay than the normal because of call outs to repairs in the town.

[gypsygeoff]

I can't talk about the power station,but my uncle Jack Humphreys from Cross st was the foreman fitter at the gas works.

[hb501stem]

Started work at BICC in 1955.A that time they had a Light and Power Dept adjacent to the boiler house in Bridge Road.I remember large alternators and rotary converters for DC supply.A story I heared was that Tinlings Printers used to get the time signals and power for their clocking on/off clocks from Bicc untill some rewiring work occured at Bicc and Tinlings were left with no working clocks,It cause mayhem at the time.I remember as a child the voltage changing from 120 to 250 volts so it is quite possible this was the changeover from Bicc supply to national supply,Just a thought.

Started work at BICC in 1955.A that time they had a Light and Power Dept adjacent to the boiler house as seen from Bridge Road.I remember large alternators and rotary converters for DC supply.A story I heared was that Tinlings Printers used to get the time signals and power for their clocking on/off clocks from Bicc untill some rewiring work occured at Bicc and Tinlings were left with no working clocks,It cause mayhem at the time.I remember as a child the voltage changing from 120 to 250 volts so it is quite possible this was the changeover from Bicc supply to national supply,Just a thought.