PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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PROVINCIAL TRAMWAYS COMPANY Ltd The Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Tramways Company was the first tramway company to be purchased by the Provincial Tramways Company Ltd in 1872. At the time the Company's prospectus was issued in July 1872, the Plymouth system was the only one up and running. The Cardiff system was still under construction and the tramways in Dundee, Portsmouth, Southampton and Tynemouth was still to be started. They were all to be acquired by the new Company. The Provincial Tramways Company had an imposing list of directors: Mr Arthur Pratt Barlow, a director of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company; Mr John Humphreys, a director of the London Tramways Company Ltd; Lord Alexander Gordon Lennox, a director of the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company Ltd; Mr W Morris, a director of the British and Foreign Tramways Company Ltd; and Mr E Wormald, of Victoria Chambers, London SW. Mr Joseph Barber Glenn, an Islington accountant, was the secretary of the Company and their head office was at number 7 Poultry, London, EC. Their bankers were The National Bank of Scotland and the share brokers were Messrs Walker and Lumsden of 9 Old Broad Street, London EC. The Company's authorised capital amounted to £300,000 in £10 shares. It was claimed that although the Plymouth system had not been opened long enough to be fully developed, the gross returns so far were sufficient to show a net profit of between 8 and 10% on the proportion of the capital allocated to it. The Provincial Tramways Company Ltd had agreed to pay £97,500 in total to purchase the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Tramways Company and the system in Cardiff.
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