South Yorkshire Times, August 4th 1933
New Post
Mexborough Electrical Engineer
Going To Long Eaton
Mr. John Barnett Feltham, M.I.E.E., electrical engineer and waterworks engineer to the Mexborough Urban District Council, was on Monday appointed, from 161 applicants, to the post of electrical engineer to the Long Eaton Urban District Council. The appointment was unanimous, as was also the recommendation by the Electric Supply Committee. Long Eaton an urban district with a population of 28,000 and is situate midway between Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester. It has a well-equipped, modern generating station, with an annual output of nearly 5,000.000 units, and carries a considerably higher salary than the Mexborough station.
Mr. Feltham came to Mexborough from Gloucester in 1916. He is a native of Bury St. Edmunds, but was brought up in Gloucester and educated at Sir Thomas Rich’s Grammar School. He became an articled pupil in the electrical and mechanical engineering department of the Gloucester Wagon Company, and three years later he joined the outside staff of Crompton and Co., Electrical Engineers, Chelmsford. He returned to Gloucester as station superintendent of the City Electricity Works, and was afterwards promoted Deputy City Electrical Engineer.
Mr. Feltham came to Mexborough in 1916 as successor to Mr. J. D. Senior. At that time the Mexborough electricity works had a fifth of its present plant and an eighth of its present sale. Its output was about 300,000 units; to-day it is two and a quarter million (units sold); its generating plant was 700 kwt and to-day is 3,500 kwt, and would have been much more if sanction could have been obtained for necessary extension of plant. When Mr. Feltham came to Mexborough there were 400 consumers of electricity in the town; to-day there are 3,760 domestic consumers alone, and this is due not so much to growth of population as to the vigorous and enterprising policy of the electricity department, who spent £10,000 on extensions of cable and thus made possible the assisted wiring scheme which has been responsible for an almost complete turnover to electricity. In addition, a very large industrial or trade “load” has been built up, and to-day represents sixty per cent of the total output.
Mr. Feltham fought hard to retain for Mexborough complete control of electrical generation, but the Electricity Commissioners refused sanction to local extension of plant and insisted on the town buying in bulk its extra requirements from the Yorkshire Electric Power Company. Mr. Feltham made out an excellent case and proved that the town could generate more cheaply than it could buy, but the Commissioners applied the “grid” scheme as touchstone to all such questions and Mexborough are to-day obliged to buy half their supply from the Yorkshire Electric Power Company. Though defeated in their main object the Council secured adequate protection in the matter of price.
Mr. Feltham has also done excellent work for the town in the reorganization of its water supply. At the urgent request of the Council, he took over control of the water undertaking in 1917 shortly after it had been acquired from the old waterworks company. He found the town with a precarious supply available for not more than twelve hours a day, and leaves it with an abundant and reliable supply, thanks to repeated borings and the acquisition of a valuable auxiliary supply from High Ludwell, just over the boundary. Mr. Feltham prepared the technical case for the acquisition of this supply in the face of very strong opposition from the Doncaster Rural Council and the Doncaster and Tickhill Water Board, and his alertness and skill served Mexborough very well in that emergency. Indeed, throughout his career here he has served the town with great ability, and Mexborough has been fortunate to retain his services for so long. He will take with him the good will and the good wishes of the people of Mexborough to his new and larger sphere. Mr. Feltham is to take up his new appointment as soon as he can be released.