For anyone born after the mid-20th century, It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking of what today we refer to as public utilities – clean piped water, sewers and electricity – as something that has long been a part of life.
Of course, that is not so, and they arrived more recently than you might think.
In Poyntzpass, primitive street drains (not proper sewers) came first, followed by piped fresh water and electricity at about the same time, about 100 years ago. A proper modern sewerage collection and treatment system was not in place until the 1950s.
However, the village’s first true public utility was a service rather than something physical – the penny post.