Southern Gas Board
The Southern Gas Board was a state-owned utility area gas board providing gas for light and heat to industries and homes in Dorset, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and parts of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Devon, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex and Wiltshire.
It was established on 1 May 1949 under the terms of the Gas Act 1948, and dissolved in 1973 when it became a region of the newly formed British Gas Corporation, British Gas Southern, as a result of the Gas Act 1972.
Existing gas suppliers taken over
Under the Gas (Allocation of Undertakings to Area Boards and Gas Council) Order 1949, the Southern Gas Board took over existing local authority and privately owned gas production and supply utilities in its area:- Alresford Gas Company
- Andover Lighting and Company
- Associated Utilities
- Aylesbury Gas Company
- Banbury Gaslight and Coke Company
- Basingstoke Gas Company
- Blandford Gas Company
- Bognor and District Gas and Electricity Company
- Bournemouth Gas and Water Company
- Brackley Gas Company
- Bridport Gas Company
- Chipping Norton Gas Light and Coke Company
- Cowes Urban District Council
- Dorchester Gas and Coke Company
- East Cowes Gas Company
- East Wight Gas Company
- Farnham Gas and Company