 Birmingham Waterworks Tower by John Henry Chamberlain | |
| Predecessor | Birmingham Waterworks Company |
|---|---|
| Successor | Severn Trent Water Authority |
| Formation | 1876 |
| Dissolved | 1974 |
| Location | |
Region served | City of Birmingham |
Parent organization | Birmingham City Council |
The Birmingham Corporation Water Department was responsible for the supply of water to Birmingham, England, from 1876 to 1974. It was also known as Birmingham Corporation Waterworks Department.
The earliest formal supply of water was offered by the Birmingham Waterworks Company. In 1808 notice of a bill was given in Parliament for a scheme to provide Birmingham with an organised supply of water. It was opposed, and in 1809 a meeting considered the proposal, appointed a committee, and rejected the idea of the waterworks. A second bill was rejected in 1811. It was not until 1826 that Parliament granted powers constituting
the Company of Proprietors of the Birmingham Waterworks for the purpose of providing a sufficient and constant supply of good and wholesome water for domestic, manufacturing and other purposes
The area to be supplied used only the River Tame. The initial supply was intermittent. In 1849, the corporation made an agreement with the company for a constant supply in certain districts. By 1853 a constant supply was universal.
The Grade II listed [1] Birmingham Waterworks Tower at Edgbaston Waterworks was designed by John Henry Chamberlain and built in 1870. There is no connection to the nearby Edgbaston Reservoir, built to feed local canals, a hundred years previously.
By 1873 the total quantity supplied was around 3,000 million imperial gallons (14,000,000 m3) per annum.
The Birmingham Corporation Act of 1875 empowered Birmingham Corporation to purchase the Birmingham Waterworks Company. The transaction was supervised by the Mayor of Birmingham, Joseph Chamberlain, and completed on 1 January 1876 for the sum of £1,350,000 (equivalent to £135,103,010 in 2021) [2] . Chamberlain declared to a House of Commons committee
We have not the slightest intention of making profit... We shall get our profit indirectly in the comfort of the town and in the health of the inhabitants
The rivers Bourne and Blythe, Plant's Brook and Perry Stream were used as sources. The corporation dug six wells at Aston, Short Heath, King's Vale, Perry Barr, Selly Oak (Selly Oak Pumping Station survives), and Longbridge. These provided 20 million imperial gallons (91,000 m3) per day. There were 14 reservoirs (including Aston Reservoir, Perry Barr, Witton Lakes and Brookvale) with a total capacity of 628.5 million imperial gallons (2,857,000 m3).
By 1891, population growth in the city was causing demand for water to outstrip supply.
The Birmingham Corporation Water Act passed in 1892 authorised the purchase of land in Mid Wales on the upper portion of the Rivers Elan and Claerwen. Three reservoirs on the Elan and three on the Claerwen (collectively the "Elan Valley Reservoirs") were authorised, together with an aqueduct to carry the water to Birmingham. [3] The engineer for the Elan aqueduct scheme was James Mansergh. Construction work started in 1893 and the Elan Valley Railway was built to aid construction. [4] King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra performed the official opening on 21 July 1904 although building works were not completed until near the end of 1906.
The Elan aqueduct discharged into two reservoirs: Frankley Reservoir at Frankley and Bartley Reservoir at Bartley Green. [5]
The capacity of the aqueduct was increased with work starting in 1919. By 1921, two 42-inch-diameter (1,100 mm) mains from Wales delivered about 25 million imperial gallons (110,000 m3) per day.
Birmingham Corporation Water Department existed until 1974 when, under the Water Act 1973, its responsibilities were transferred to the Severn Trent Water Authority which is now Severn Trent Water.
The city council later took unsuccessful legal action to recover its lost investment.[ citation needed ]
The Elan Valley Reservoirs are a chain of man-made lakes created from damming the Elan and Claerwen rivers within the Elan Valley in Mid Wales. The reservoirs, which were built by the Birmingham Corporation Water Department, provide clean drinking water for Birmingham in the West Midlands of England. The five lakes are known as the Claerwen, Craig-goch, Pen-y-garreg, Garreg-ddu, and Caban-coch.
Thirlmere is a reservoir in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria and the English Lake District. The Helvellyn ridge lies to the east of Thirlmere. To the west of Thirlmere are a number of fells; for instance, Armboth Fell and Raven Crag both of which give views of the lake and of Helvellyn beyond. It runs roughly south to north and is bordered on the eastern side for much of its length by the A591 road and on the western side by a minor road. It occupies the site of a former natural lake: this had a fordable waist so narrow that it was sometimes regarded as two lakes. In the 19th century Manchester Corporation constructed a dam at the northern end, raising the water level, flooding the valley bottom, and creating a reservoir to provide the growing industrial city of Manchester with water supplies via the 96 mile-long Thirlmere Aqueduct. The reservoir and the aqueduct still provide water to the Manchester area, but under the Water Act 1973 ownership passed to the North West Water Authority; as a result of subsequent privatisation and amalgamation they are now owned and managed by United Utilities, a private water and waste water company.
This article is about the government of Birmingham, England.
Bartley Reservoir is a reservoir for drinking water in Birmingham, England, operated by Severn Trent Water. It covers 460,000 square metres (5,000,000 sq ft).
Perry Barr Reservoir is a covered drinking water reservoir, in north Birmingham, England, operated by Severn Trent Water. Built for the then Birmingham Corporation Water Department, on the site of the former Perry Barr Farm, it is not, despite its name, in the modern Perry Barr area, but nearby Kingstanding, at grid reference SP083951.
Frankley Water Treatment Works is a drinking water plant at Frankley, Birmingham, England. Owned by Severn Trent Water, it supplies drinking water to Birmingham and the surrounding area. The plant treats water from the Elan Valley in Wales, which arrives at Frankley Reservoir by gravity feed along the Elan aqueduct with a gradient of 1 in 2,300.
Frankley Reservoir is a semi-circular reservoir for drinking water in Birmingham, England, operated by Severn Trent Water. Its construction was authorised by the Birmingham Corporation Water Act of 1892. It was built by Birmingham Corporation Water Department to designs by Abram Kellett of Ealing in 1904.
Bristol Water is a British water company which supplies 266 million litres of drinking water daily to over 1.2 million customers in a 2,600 km2 (1,000 sq mi) area centred on Bristol, England. It is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991. Sewerage services in the Bristol area are provided by Wessex Water.
Edgbaston Waterworks lies to the east of Edgbaston Reservoir, two miles west of the centre of Birmingham, England.
The Thirlmere Aqueduct is a 95.9-mile-long (154.3-kilometre-long) pioneering section of water supply system in England, built by the Manchester Corporation Water Works between 1890 and 1925. Often incorrectly thought of as one of the longest tunnels in the world, the aqueduct's tunnel section is not continuous.
This article is intended to show a timeline of events in the History of Birmingham, England, with a particular focus on the events, people or places that are covered in Wikipedia articles.
The Elan aqueduct crosses Wales and the Midlands of England, running eastwards from the Elan Valley Reservoirs in Mid Wales to Birmingham's Frankley Reservoir, carrying drinking water for Birmingham.
Severn Trent Water Authority was one of ten regional water authorities established in 1974. Its area of operation was the catchments of the River Trent and River Severn. It assumed the powers and responsibilities of existing water supply authorities in those catchment areas, the Severn River Authority, the Trent River Authority and the sewage and sewage disposal responsibilities of the councils within its area.
The City of Nottingham Water Department (1912–1974), formerly the Nottingham Corporation Water Department (1880–1912), was responsible for the supply of water to Nottingham from 1880 to 1974. The first water supply company in the town was the Nottingham Waterworks Company, established in 1696, which took water from the River Leen, and later from springs at Scotholme, when the river became polluted. Other companies were set up in the late 18th century and in 1824, while in 1826 the Trent Water Company was established. They employed Thomas Hawksley as their engineer, who became one of the great water engineers of the period, and Nottingham had the first constant pressurised water supply system in the country. The various companies amalgamated in 1845, and Hawksley remained as the consulting engineer until 1879.
The Pumping Station at Whitacre Waterworks, Shustoke, Warwickshire, is a Victorian Civic Gospel pumping house built in circa 1872. Along with the construction of Shustoke Reservoir, it was originally designed to pump six million gallons of fresh water per day to nearby Birmingham. It started operating in 1883, but was shortly thereafter in 1904 put into standby as the Elan Valley reservoirs and aqueduct scheme started to supply Birmingham with its freshwater needs. It instead was latterly used in 1908 to supply water to Coventry, and now Nuneaton, Atherstone, and Bedworth. The water supply emanates from the nearby river Bourne and the river Blythe. The pumping station building was listed grade II* in March 1982 as a notable example of civic gospel. The listing also covers a Victorian filter house, water well, and Superintendent's house. In 2018 the unused building was placed on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register due to its poor condition and prioritised as in immediate risk of further rapid deterioration.
Glasgow Corporation Water Works and its successors have provided a public water supply and sewerage and sewage treatment services to the Scottish city of Glasgow. There were several schemes in the early part of the 1800s, with the Glasgow Company which was established in 1806 pumping filtered water from the River Clyde into the city. The Gorbals Gravitation Water Company was established in 1846, and brought water from reservoirs to the south-west of the city. However, an outbreak of cholera in 1848/1849, in which 4,000 people died, concentrated the minds of Glasgow Council, and in 1855 a scheme to use water from Loch Katrine, 36 miles (58 km) to the north, was authorised. The work required at Loch Katrine was quite modest, and the major construction work was the building of an aqueduct to carry the water to the city by gravity.
Liverpool Corporation Waterworks and its successors have provided a public water supply and sewerage and sewage treatment services to the city of Liverpool, England. In 1625 water was obtained from a single well and delivered by cart, but as the town grew, companies supplied water to homes through pipes. There were two main companies by the 1840s, but the water supply was intermittent, and there was general dissatisfaction with the service. Liverpool Corporation decided that such an important service should be provided by a public body, and sought to take over the water supply companies.
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