City of Nottingham Water Department

(Old) Nottingham Waterworks Company Prior to 1696, water for the people of Nottingham was obtained from the river or from shallow wells, and carriers, known as Higglers, delivered it to those who wanted it. In 1696, the first Nottingham Waterworks Company obtained a lease from the Corporation, allowing it to build pumps and a water wheel to drive them, to extract water from the River Leen. The water was pumped to a reservoir to the east of Park Row, from where a network of pipes fed much of the town. The waterwheel and pumps were very similar to a system which the engineer George Sorocold had installed at London Bridge, and he may have been associated with the Nottingham scheme, but it is also possible that it was the Nottingham engineer Peter Whalley who designed it. In the eighteenth century Nottingham experienced rapid growth, as a result of the development of the frame knitting industry and the lace industry, with the population expanding five-fold from 10,000 in 1720 to 50,000 in 1830. The River Leen could no longer provide sufficient water to meet the need, and it also became polluted with sewage and industrial waste. Increasingly, there were complaints about the quality of the water. By 1830 the River Leen was sufficiently polluted that it was abandoned as a source of water, and instead, the company constructed a reservoir covering about in Scotholme, which was fed by spring water. They also constructed a new pumping station close to the Lean near Castle Rock. Water flowed by gravity from the new reservoir to the pumping station, through a iron pipe, from where it was pumped to a service reservoir close to the site of the General Hospital. Power could be provided either by a waterwheel or by a beam engine with a similar power output. The pumping station was located in Brewhouse Yard, and appeared on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1880. Zion Hill Water and Marble Works A second private company, the Zion Hill Water and Marble Works was formed in the late 18th century. Zion Hill was in the Canning Circus area, and the company had two wells near Alfreton Road. The wells were deep, from which water was pumped by steam engines, which also powered some lace making machines and saws to cut marble. They supplied a fairly small area with good quality water, partly through pipes, and also by using water carriers to deliver the product. Nottingham Waterworks Company The St. Mary's Nottingham Inclosure Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 7 ) allowed the city to expand onto the surrounding land. The water companies had been in open competition for more than a decade, with no legal boundaries to define which areas each could supply, but to meet the challenges of the enlarging city, the '''''' (8 & 9 Vict. c. xix) was also obtained, which formally merged the three companies into one, to be known as Nottingham Waterworks Company. Hawksley, as the most prominent engineer involved with any of the original enterprises, became consulting engineer for the new company, a position that he held until it was taken over by the Corporation in 1879. Nottingham sits on top of a huge area of Bunter sandstone, which holds large volumes of groundwater, which is prevented from seeping lower by an underlying layer of impermeable Permian marls. Bunter consists of loosely packed grains, which filter the water effectively, and does not contain soluble materials such as lime, resulting in the water being relatively soft. The new company looked to extract groundwater from the Bunter, and constructed the Park Hill or Sion Hill pumping station near The Ropewalk in 1850. A Cornish beam engine rated at pumped water from two wells, which were around deep and in diameter. Water was pumped onwards to Park Row Reservoir through an iron pipe in diameter, or to Belle Vue Reservoir through a diameter pipe. The works supplied between and of water per day, but was abandoned in 1880 due to the hardness of the water, and fears of contamination from the General Cemetery. The new Park Row Reservoir was constructed where Park Row joins The Ropewalk. The site for Belle Vue reservoir was obtained in 1846 by compulsory purchase using the powers that the Inclosure Commissioners had obtained in 1845. Ichabod Wright was reluctant to sell, because Toad Hole Hill was one of Nottingham's finest beauty spots. Hawksley's partner Robert Jalland designed the reservoir, which was long, wide and high, with the roof formed of 288 brick arches. The work was completed on 16 May 1851, and the reservoir could store of water. Subsequently, T. C. Hine designed a second reservoir, which was built by John Loverseed. It was by in size, held of water, and opened on 9 May 1864. Bagthorpe Works, which was also known as Basford Works, was completed in 1857 on a site near the junction of Haydn Road and Hucknall Road. There were two wells which were around deep, and each was pumped by a compound beam engine manufactured by R and W Hawthorn of Newcastle upon Tyne. The works was enlarged in 1868 when a third well was completed, pumped by an single cylinder engine. Mapperley Hill reservoir was constructed at a similar time, being completed in 1859. The next major expansion was the construction of Bestwood Pumping Station, some to the north of the city on the Mansfield Road. of land were leased from the Duke of St Albans in Bestwood Park, and two wells each deep were sunk into the Bunter sandstone. Two rotative beam engines were supplied by J. Witham and Sons of Leeds, and the water was pumped to a new reservoir at Redhill. Both the pumping station and the reservoir were completed in 1871. As a result of subsidence from coal mining, the pumping station is now about lower than when it was built, but the settlement has taken place gradually, and has not disrupted the operation of the works. Construction of a further reservoir at Papplewick was completed in 1880, just before the company was taken over by the Corporation, but it had to be abandoned in 1906 when it was damaged by subsidence. ==Nottingham Corporation Water Department==

The Nottingham Improvement Act 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. cciv) empowered Nottingham Corporation to take over the Nottingham Waterworks Company, but the plan had been nearly 30 years in the making. By the early 1850s around 12 local authorities had gained control of their own water supplies. In 1852, the council had asked the water company for a reduction in their rates, as they were a large user of water. Prior to the formation of the Nottingham Water Company in 1845, the old Nottingham Water Company had supplied water to the various parishes within its area of supply without charge, when the water was used for cleaning the streets. The new company had a more commercial outlook, stating that they were intent on making a profit from their enterprise. A public meeting, attended by between 600 and 800 people on 2 November 1853, instructed the council to prepare to take over water supply and gas supply. The gas company was estimated to be worth £108,808, while the water company was estimated at £60,100. Manchester was quoted as a town where such a takeover had significantly reduced the cost of water, and operating surpluses were being used to fund public works. In early 1854, the waterworks company presented a bill to Parliament to allow them to increase their capital, which was passed as the '''''' (17 & 18 Vict. c. x). A motion for the council to buy the waterworks was defeated in a meeting on 6 February 1854, but they proposed to ask the company why they needed such a large increase in capital, to suggest that dividends on any such capital should be restricted to five per cent, that the provisions of the Waterworks Clauses Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. 17), which the sanitary reformer Edwin Chadwick had promoted to restrict profits that water companies could make, and to comply with all reasonable demands for water, should apply to the company, and that the council should be allowed to buy shares in the company, which would give them voting powers. The water company refused to consider any of these actions, and the issue of takeover lay dormant for a time. On 6 October 1859, Marriott Ogle Tarbotton became the Borough Engineer, having been chosen from 52 applicants despite only being 24. He faced rather more pressing problems, particularly the disposal of sewage, and issues with the infrastructure resulting from the overcrowding that had occurred before the St. Mary's Nottingham Inclosure Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. 7 ) had allowed the town to expand its borders. He was pre-occupied with these during the 1860s, although the issue of buying the waterworks company was pursued in 1869 and 1870, but the company refused to co-operate. The water company obtained several more acts of Parliament; the ' (37 & 38 Vict. c. cxxxvii), the (41 & 42 Vict. c. xlv) and the ' (42 & 43 Vict. c. xi), with the council opposing all of them. The council in turn had obtained improvement acts of Parliament in 1872 and the Nottingham Improvement Act 1874 (37 & 38 Vict. c. cxciv) which raised issues to do with water supply, and a similar act of Parliament, the Nottingham Improvement Act 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. cciv), gave them powers to take the waterworks company over. This was completed on 25 March 1880 with the formation of the Nottingham Corporation Water Department, during a period when the town experienced rapid growth. As a result of the Nottingham Borough Extension Act 1877 (40 & 41 Vict. c. xxxi) the population had increased from 86,621 in 1871 to 186,575 in 1881, while its area had increased from to during the same period. On 25 May 1880 the Water Department invited the members of the Corporation to inspect the works of the important water undertaking recently acquired by the town. The tour began at the public offices in Albert Street from where the large party rode to Trent Bridge in private trams supplied by the Nottingham and District Tramways Company Limited. They travelled by tram again and then walked to the Castle Works. From there they proceeded to the Park Row reservoir, and then walked to the Sion Hill (Canning Circus) Works. From the top of the Derby Road, the tram cars were used for the journey to Scotholme Springs. The party then moved on in eight carriages to see Bagthorpe pumping station, Redhill reservoir, Papplewick reservoir and finally Bestwood Pumping Station, where they took a late lunch in a marquee in its grounds. A newspaper report the following day noted how well the late Water Company had managed its assets. Tarbotton ceased to be Borough Engineer, and became engineer for the gas works, which had been taken over in 1874, and of the water works. He set about improving the available supplies of water, constructing two wells at Papplewick, some to the north of Nottingham. The designs for the pumping station may well have been borrowed from Hawksley, who had previously negotiated with the landowner for rights to extract water, and James Watt and Co, who supplied the two large beam engines for Papplewick, noted the similarity between the design and that of a pumping station at Great Yarmouth, also designed by Hawksley. The first engine was run in September 1884, although the works were not declared to be complete until 12 April 1886. The two wells were deep, and were connected by adits which were long. Water was raised by ram pumps connected to the rotative beam engines. An additional reservoir was constructed at Mapperley, as well as a water main to link the two sites. When Papplewick Pumping Station came on line, the Scotholme, Trent Bridge, and Brewhouse Yard works were abandoned, having been out of use since 1871, when the Bestwood pumping station had started to produce water. Tarbotton, who had overseen its construction, died unexpectedly on 6 March 1887, though his colleagues stated that he had worked too hard, without adequate rest and recreation, and had shown signs of stress during his final two years. A report on 1898 identified the need for another pumping station, and a site at Boughton, north of the town centre was chosen. Three wells were built to a depth of around , which were connected together by adits. Boreholes were then drilled from the adits to a depth of , and water was raised by ram pumps powered by triple expansion steam engines. The station was the last to use wells, and when it was completed in 1905, it could produce per day. Subsequent stations used boreholes, and the first of these was completed at Burton Joyce in 1898. Three more boreholes were drilled at the site in 1908, to a depth of . In 1906, Wilford Suspension Bridge was built across the Trent to carry water mains and gas mains. The water fed a new reservoir at Wilford Hill in West Bridgford, which enabled the Park Row reservoir site to be sold to the General Hospital. The five pumping stations now owned by the corporation drew water from the bunter sandstone and delivered it to covered reservoirs in the city, from where it was delivered by gravity to domestic and industrial consumers. ==City of Nottingham Water Department==

Nottingham was granted city status in 1897 by Queen Victoria as part of her jubilee celebrations, and the Nottingham Corporation Waterworks was renamed the City of Nottingham Water Department in 1912. In 1899, Nottingham co-operated with Derby, Leicester, Sheffield and Derbyshire County, to create the Derwent Valley Water Board, which was authorised by the Derwent Valley Water Act 1899 (62 & 63 Vict. c. cclxix). This allowed them to construct reservoirs in the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire. Howden Reservoir was the first to be completed, in 1912, and water from it was filtered, before being piped to the cities. Although water from this source became available in 1913, there were complaints, and it was not used until a filter works was constructed at Eastwood. The city began drawing water from the Derwent scheme in 1917, and this provided one quarter of Nottingham's water by 1918. Derwent Reservoir was completed in 1916, and Ladybower Reservoir was commissioned in 1945. The whole of the works was estimated to cost £400,000 and was scheduled for completion by 1948, but the project was interrupted by World War II. Between 1945 and 1969, with revised plans five further electrically-powered borehole stations were built at Rufford, completed in 1945, Lambley, built in 1957, Halam, operational by 1963, Markham Clinton, opened in 1965, and finally Ompton, which was finished in 1969. By 1969, of water were supplied daily from boreholes and pumping stations abstracting water from the Bunter sandstone. ==Sewerage==

When Tarbotton became Borough Engineer, the lower parts of the town were often affected by flooding of polluted water from the River Leen. This was a consequence of six parishes adjacent to the town discharging raw sewage into the river. The '''''' (35 & 36 Vict. c. cv) enabled the Nottingham and Leen District Sewerage Board to be created. In addition to his other duties, Tarbotton became the Sewerage Board's engineer in 1872, and set about rectifying the situation. He oversaw the construction of sewers and sewage pumping stations, which carried the effluent to a sewage farm some downstream of Nottingham at Stoke Bardolph. Here it was treated, and the liquor discharged into the River Trent was relatively pure. The Nottingham Borough Extension Act 1877 (40 & 41 Vict. c. xxxi) incorporated the offending parishes into the town of Nottingham, and the responsibilities of the Sewerage Board were taken over by the corporation at the same time. Initially the corporation leased of agricultural land from Earl Manvers. ==Privatisation==

The City of Nottingham Water Department existed until 1974 when, under the terms of the Water Act 1973, responsibility for water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment were transferred to the Severn Trent Water Authority, one of ten regional water authorities established to manage water resources in England and Wales, which included land drainage and river quality. There were issues with the new structures, as a single authority responsible for river quality and sewage treatment was unlikely to prosecute itself for breaches in quality. It also became obvious that the water and sewage industry suffered from ageing infrastructure and chronic under-investment. The Conservative Party of the time saw privatisation as a means to solve the funding gap, and under the terms of the Water Act 1989, the water authority became Severn Trent Water, a water and sewerage company, with the river quality and land drainage functions passing to the National Rivers Authority, and subsequently the Environment Agency. ==See also==