Leeswood; Telegraphic Communication, 1866

type: Beyond Scotland - Wales

Source:
Wrexham Advertiser
Unique Code:
A01040
Source date:
06/10/1866

TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH WREXHAM, CHESTER, &c. —

On Monday afternoon a meeting was held at the Pontblyddyn Inn to consider the conditions upon which the Electric and International Telegraph Company had offered to make an extension of their wires to Mold, Padeswood, and Coed Talon.

The chair was taken by Mr W. Mattieu Williams, local manager for the London, Leeswood, and Erith Mineral Oil Company, and the meeting was attended by the representatives of some of the most influential firms in the neighbourhood, among whom were;

Messrs. G. A. Birbeck, Robert Griffiths, Richard Griffiths, John Jeffs, Rev. D. Evans, W. Gibbon, Ness, Norman Tate, Hugh Fenton, W. Brice, &c.

The proposition to co-operate in the guarantee proposed at Mold was unanimously rejected, the majority being unwilling to take upon themselves a responsibility of ten years' duration, all considering such a demand on the part of the Telegraph Company as most unreasonable. The meeting proposed, if it were necessary to run all the risks of loss, to combine such risk with the chance of profit, and therefore went into the subject of making an independent line along the high road. Mr H. Fenton supplied practical data as to cost, &c, of carrying such a line through Hawarden, Buckley, &c, to Chester, with branch to Mold. At Chester there are two companies established, with one of which terms could be made for carrying messages forward. The Chairman suggested the Wrexham Mold and Connah's Quay line as a medium of communication with Wrexham, Brymbo, &c. ; and promised to confer with the traffic manager of that line on the subject, having reason to believe they would at once co-operate. Mr Birbeck suggested that Pontblyddyn should be made the head station for the Padeswood and Leeswood district, being central to both ; and that radiating lines should be extended to Mold, Buckley, and all the local centres of business.

Messrs. Tate, Griffiths, and Glover were of opinion that such a centre might become the nucleus of an extended system that should ultimately supply the busy districts of North Wales with the telegraphic communication they so much need, and which is so inadequately supplied by the existing companies. The necessity of such communication is the stronger in such localities as they for the most part consist of mineral and other works having their head-quarters in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, &c. All present expressed their willingness to take shares in a company for carrying out these objects ; and the following resolutions were passed unanimously:

l. That this meeting considers the demand made by the Electric and International Telegraph Company "for a personal guarantee to be unreasonable and unnecessary ; the obvious commercial activity of the district being a sufficient guarantee for the commercial success of the required telegraphic extensions."
2. That, if the Electric and International Telegraph Company refuse the extension to Padeswood and Coed Talon, the present meeting is prepared to make an independent line to Wrexham or Chester, with such radiations as may be found desirable.

The Wrexham Advertiser, 6th October 1866