The Yorkshire House to House Electricity Co.

[BJF]

They're outside the Almshouses on Raglan road

[Phill_dvsn]

BJF wrote: They're outside the Almshouses on Raglan road Great, thanks for that

[blackprince]

BJF wrote: They're outside the Almshouses on Raglan road You're only going to find these YHH manhole covers in a few wealthy streets close to the city centre. Only the businesses and the rich could afford electric lighting and this firm YHH was set up in 1892 , spent 2 years building its generating station at Whitehall Rd, and then supplied electricity only until 1897 when the council decided that it was a good number ( after letting YHH take the risks of starting up from scratch with completely new technology and establishing that a market existed for the new product)    and took it back into public ownership. In 1897 they would not have had electric lighting in poor areas like Hunslet. I was thrilled to see that photo - it makes the family history and stories i heard as a child come alive.I 'll elaborate on the family history connection with YHH in case anyone is interested .My great grandfather grew up in the east end of London near the London SE railway line which carried the first telegraph wires from Dover to London. As a young man he was employed as a telegraphist in this very new industry. As he got older he became a forman cable jointer for the telegraph company but then was employed on the installation of electric lighting in a number of European cities including Dublin & Madrid and finally Leeds. He came to "light up" Leeds in 1894 when the Whitehall Rd generating station was working and the job was to wire up as many new customers as possible. Because he was involved in the wiring side of the business it is very possible he worked on the very manhole covers you have found. The skills and experience he had by the time Leeds decided to go electric were in short supply and YHH made him some promises to get him to take the job which were not honoured . Basically they picked his brains and used him to train some well-connected locals who were then given the advancement he had been promised ( or so the family story goes). The decision by the council to buy out YHH in 1897 may have been a factor in his disappointment. My grandfather was 10 in 1894 at the time the family moved to Leeds and had to attend a school in Harehills where he was bullied because of his cockney accent. He and several of his brothers all followed their father and became electricians, working in Leeds all their lives , except for military service in the Great War.        

[chemimike]

i think the power station your ancestor worked on was this one in whitehall Road. this picture was a bit later though c 1975:         

[chemimike]

Sorry, knew there were troubles with pictures. didn't realise you couldn't put links in

[chameleon]

chemimike wrote: Sorry, knew there were troubles with pictures. didn't realise you couldn't put links in Why not - what problem are you having?

[blackprince]

This is a picture of the early generators at the Whitehall road power station.http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/751977

[raveydavey]

blackprince wrote: http://www.davidheyscollection.com/page43.htm     Great link blackprince - I've spent an hour on there and barely scratched the surface!

[blackprince]

chemimike wrote: Sorry, knew there were troubles with pictures. didn't realise you couldn't put links in Try resending the link, it should work alright.

[blackprince]

raveydavey wrote: blackprince wrote: http://www.davidheyscollection.com/page43.htm     Great link blackprince - I've spent an hour on there and barely scratched the surface! Yes I was chuffed to find it myself. I spent a lot of time in the sixties trainspotting around the sheds and stations in Leeds ( and much further afield York, Doncaster, Manchester) but my pocket money couldn't run to a decent camera or even film processing costs in those days, so I have no photographic record of my own.