I HAVE fond memories of my (often lengthy) chats with old Maldonian Bill Alford.

When I knew him, he was the caretaker at what was then the Maldon Youth and Adult Centre, based at the Friary.

Bill, as he was rightly proud to tell everyone, had a local claim to fame – he was Maldon’s last lamplighter.

His job was (in the early days at least, before automatic operations) to light and maintain (including renewing the mantles and their silks) Maldon’s chain of gas lights.

He was a familiar sight walking our main streets carrying a ladder and, like some of you, I can remember him performing his duties.

Another local that I knew, Mr Crew of Cross Road, was later involved in removing the lamps and posts when the town finally went over to electric streetlighting in 1971 and I can recall a number of those redundant appliances lying in his back garden.

Mr Crew’s task marked the end of a story which had really begun during the closing years of the 18th century, for it was in 1792 that the Scottish engineer, William Murdock, produced gas from coal distillation to light his office.

In 1805, the first factory (in Manchester) had industrial gas lighting installed and, two years later, Pall Mall, in central London, became the first thoroughfare in the world to be lit by gas.

Private companies were formed to produce and supply gas across the country and gas lighting then sprang up in the provinces, including in Maldon.

The Metropolis Gas Act of 1860 regulated the companies and their operations and set standards for illumination.

A Maldon Directory of 1894 tells us that, here in our home town, the gas was supplied by the Maldon Gas Light Company Limited.

Their works were at 141 High Street and were “replete with modern manufacturing appliances” which produced a gas supply “…at the rate of 4s. 7d. per 1,000 feet to private consumers and to the public lamps by contract with the Corporation”.

The works occupied a large frontage at the bottom end of High Street and extended right back to Victoria Road.

The secretary and manager at that stage was Henry Clarke.

In fact the Clarke dynasty was associated with the company for a good 50 or so years.

Stephen Clarke was secretary and collector in 1862.

Henry succeeded him and gave way to ten times mayor Arthur Laver Clarke in 1902.

The board of directors was made up of well-known local businessmen, including High Street furniture dealer William King Digby; wine and spirit merchant and manager of the Maldon Crystal Salt Company Thomas Elsey Bland JP; six times mayor of Chelmsford Thomas John Deeks Cramphorn; Maldon solicitor John Crick Freeman; William Gepp (one-time landlord of the Bell public house in Silver Street); auctioneer James Rogers; and saddle and harness-maker George Warwicker.

As early as that entry is, the idea of a Maldon gas works was first muted in the press in 1834.

It was stated to be an ideal location because, for some reason, “coals were cheapest” here.

As a result, the Maldon Gas Light Company was formed by deed of settlement as an unlimited company in 1846, although gas was being made at the works from at least 1844.

White’s Directory of 1848 gives further details and says that the town is “lighted from the gas works, which were established by private individuals some years ago, but were purchased by a company for £3,000 in 1844, in £20 shares, since increased to £21”.

As pioneering as Maldon might have been with its streetlights, the provision was not without its difficulties.

By 1872 the town had a reputation for leaking pipes (with a pressure of 6” water gauge) and dim lighting – a problem that still existed in 1905.

The supply had to be switched off completely on January 17, 1892, when a massive fire in the High Street threatened an equally large explosion.

Thankfully that tragedy was avoided and the Maldon Gas Light Company continued to operate (albeit without statutory powers) right through until 1939.

The British Gas Light Company obtained a controlling interest in 1930 and, on nationalisation in 1949, the undertaking became part of the Chelmsford Group of the Ipswich Division of Eastern Gas Board.

Maldon’s gas works stood derelict for some time until the site was cleared in 1994 and replaced by today’s Edward Bright Close, the public car park and the premises on High Street now numbered 139 to 143.

As we know, the soft parchment-coloured light of our, albeit sometimes temperamental gas lamps, gave way to the harsher, some might say “soulless” glow of electricity five decades ago.

But those of us who remember our gas lights will never forget that unique radiance, or indeed our last “guardian of the lamps” – Bill. In 1939, the prolific travel writer HV Morton wrote of his ilk as “the last of the old brigade”, “a relic of the old times”.

Even Robert Louis Stevenson, of Treasure Island fame, remembered with romantic pleasure the lamplighter.

In his verse, he says: “For we are very lucky with a lamp before the door, And Leerie stops to light it as he lights so many more; And O! before you hurry by with ladder and with light, O Leerie, see a little child and nod to him tonight”.

I bet Bill used to do just that.