The Manor Houses of Lackham 1050-1949 2nd Ed

Houses of Lackham 2 nd ed 74
supplied via the reservoir, or “conduit house” on the western flank of Naish
Hill. The course of the supply once off Talbot‟s land is not shown and there
is no sign of the pipe at the location given today.
From the map for this agreement some of the field names on Naish Hill are
known - Notton Mead, Stoney Mead and Cow Leaze
It has already been seen that Lackham had electricity installed in 1900,
when the House supply was by a generator put in place and owned by the
Electricity company. By 1910 the Chippenham Electric Supply Company was
putting up poles and wires in the local area for power distribution. It is
known where one of these early lines ran, over land that Palmer owned close
to the Chippenham Workhouse (now the Hospital) in Rowden. George Palmer
agreed to allow the electricity company “to erect and maintain wood or iron
poles wires and appliances for the purpose of carrying electric overhead
wires “ 91 for an annual payment of 9shillings yearly payable, in advance,
January. In 1916 he agreed to allow them to erect a tenth pole (shown in
fig xx by the letter “A” just to the left of the “s” in the name Gypsy Lane)
for a further shilling per year.
This is interesting, not only because it is a reasonably early example of this
sort of agreement, at least locally, but also because it points out that
Lackham owned land very close to the centre of Chippenham at this time.
91 W&SHC 44/1/16 agreement dated 7 Feb 1910