Report to the Directors of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company, comparing the quantity, quality and price of the water that can be supplied to the inhabitants of Manchester and Salford by means of the Surplus Water Act obtained by the Railway Company with that of the Water...

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REPORT TO THE DIRECTORS or TBE MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND LINCOLNSHIRE RAILWAY COMPANY : BX S. C. HOMERSHAM, Cunt VSntsineex : COMPARING THE QUANTITY, QDAXITY, AND PRICE OP THE WATER THAT CAN BE SUPPLIED TO THE INHABITANTS OP MANCHESTER AND SALFORD, BY MEANS OP THE SURPLUS WATER ACT OBTAINED LAST SESSION BT THE MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND LINCOLNSHIRE RAILWAY COMPANY, WITH THAT OF THE WATER WORKS SCHEME PROMOTED BY THE CORPORATION OF MANCHESTER : AS WELL AS SOME REMARKS UPON THE CONSTRUCTION OP RAIN GAUGES AND THE ANNUAL DEPTH OF RAIN FALLING IN DIFFERENT LOCALITIES AROUND MANCHESTER. LONDON: JOHN WEALE, ARCHITECTURAL LIBRARY, 59. HIGH HOLBORN. 1848. LosnoN : Spottiswoode and Suaw, New-street-Squaie.

Preface

. The following pages explain fully the inducements that led the author, when professionally con sulted in the autumn of 1846, to advise the Di rectors of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln shire Railway Company to apply for parliamentary powers to legalize the sale of a large quantity of excellent water, which came into their possession from becoming the purchasers of the Peak Forest and Macclesfield Canals, and to empower them to construct such additional works as would enable them to store and supply this water in the purest state, at a cheap rate, for distribution to the inhabitants of Manchester, Salford, and Stockport. Since the year 1844, the Manchester and Salford Water Works Company have been the purchasers of a portion of this water to supply their tenants, A

PREFACE.

. as the quantity they derive from the River Medlock, and the drainage ground of the Gorton Reservoirs, has not in some years been found equal to one half of their requirements: the quality of the water procured from the last-mentioned sources, polluted as it is (especially in warm weather), from many causes, has been rendered much less objectionable by its admixture with the pure water obtained from the reservoirs of the Peak Forest Canal. With these claims upon the public of Manchester and Salford for support, combined with the con viction that no other source presented itself from which a sufficient supply of pure water, for their domestic use, could upon such advantageous terms be procured, the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lin colnshire Railway Company last year sought and obtained parliamentary powers to enable them to collect and filter this water, for the purpose of supplying it in bulk to any party who might be come the distributors of it.

A comparison of this project as it obtained the Royal assent, with the scheme at present promoted by the Corporation of Manchester for the purpose of supplying water to the Borough of Manchester,

PREFACE.

. is contained in the following Report, and may be interesting not only to the shareholders of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company, but also to the public of Manchester, Salford, and Stockport. To render it more gene rally usefid, a few introductory pages have been added. 19. Buckingham Street, Adelphi, March, 1848. a

Introduction

. The inhabitants of the towns of Manchester and Salford are at present supplied with water, for domestic and other uses, by the Manchester and Salford Water Works Company, who derive the water supplied to their customers from different sources ; namely, in part from two reservoirs, situated at Gorton, about three miles to the East of Manchester (which reservoirs collect the drainage from about 1600 acres of land, shown on the ac companying map, and coloured green), and in part from a reservoir at Beswick, to the East of the town of Manchester, which serves to collect flood-waters from the river Medlock ; this water is afterwards pumped for distribution by steam-power to a service reservoir at a greater altitude. A well has lately been sunk (but is not yet completed) in the red sandstone, near the Gorton Reservoirs, from which water is pumped, also by steam-power, into A the Gorton Reservoirs ; and for the last three or four years water has been supplied to the Water Works Company, from reservoirs belonging to the Peak Forest Canal, (which canal is now the pro perty of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln shire Railway Company).

These reservoirs, called the Todd's Brook Reservoir, and Comb's Reservoir, will be found on the map near Whaley, about four teen miles South-East of Manchester ; the water from them is conducted to the Gorton or Beswick Reservoirs of the Manchester and Salford Water Works Company, by using the Peak Forest and Ashton Canals as a conduit. It will be seen, by referring to the map, that the Ashton Canal passes over some of the feeders of the Gorton Reservoirs, and that the Peak Forest Canal unites with the Ashton Canal: water is supplied at the extreme southerly end of the Peak Forest Canal from the Todd's Brook and Comb's Reservoirs, and drawn off into the feeders of the Gorton Reservoirs from the Ashton Canal. These are the sources from which the towns of Manchester and Salford are at present supplied by the Water Works Com pany.

In a report made to this Company by their engineer, dated May 21. 1842, it is stated that, in the year 1841, 418,433,000 gallons were supplied from the drainage ground of the Gorton Reservoirs, and 30,096,000 gallons from the river Medlock, making about 1,443,000 gallons per day, as the total supply to the tenants of the Water Works Company in this year. This shows that rather less than one thirteenth of the total supply was in the year 1841 acquired from the river Medlock: at that time the well in the red sandstone was not sunk, nor any water taken from the reservoirs near Whaley. In July, 1844, the Water Works Company, not having sufficient water to supply their tenants, procured, in the emer gency, a quantity from the Peak Forest Canal Company's reservoirs, which was delivered to them by the means before described.

The Water Works Company soon after entered into an arrangement to take from this source 120,000,000 of gallons an nually, for three years certain, at the rate of two pence per 1000 gallons; and in 1844 50,000,000 of gallons, in addition to this quantity, were sup plied to them. The Manchester and Salford Water Works Company in the Session of 1845 applied to Parliament for an act to enable them to procure a further supply of water, by constructing impounding re servoirs among the hills to the East of Manchester ; but owing to the opposition given to this measure from various sources, they eventually abandoned their bill after having got through the Committee of the House of Commons. In the Session of 1847, three projects were prosecuted to procure a further supply of water for Manchester and Salford ; one by the Manchester and Salford Water Works Com pany, who proposed to collect a supply of water in reservoirs, to be constructed in Lyme Park, about eight miles South-East of Manchester, and not far distant from Stockport ; another by the Cor poration of Manchester, who proposed to collect water in reservoirs to be constructed in the Valley of Longdendale ; and the third, promoted by the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company, who having become the purchasers of the Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals, proposed to make use of the powers granted to them by Parliament for the collection of water for the use of these canals, and to obtain such further additional powers as would enable them to collect it in the greatest purity, and marshal it at High Lane, near Marple, a suitable locality for afterwards supplying it to Manchester, Salford, and Stockport, at a great altitude above these towns.

The scheme promoted by the Manchester and Salford Water Works Company was in a short time abandoned. The project of the Corporation of Manchester was sanctioned by Parliament last Ses sion ; and, with some modifications, the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company also obtained the legislative powers sought by them. The Manchester Corporation however, princi pally from the opposition raised by the millowners situated on the streams proposed to be affected by their works, bound themselves to apply to Par liament in 1848 for further powers to enable them to make larger reservoirs than were proposed last year, for the purpose of securing to the millowners, for the use of their mills, a regular stipulated quantity of water. According to my judgment the car rying out of the works proposed to be made by the Corporation will be attended with great unnecessary cost to the inhabitants of Manchester, and the water that can be procured will be bad in quality, and inadequate in quantity in dry seasons.

The enormous fall of rain calculated on by the Corpo ration is founded in error*: the large mass of peat * See Appendix Q, page 87. and mossy land from which their water is proposed to be collected, cannot fail in warm weather to injure and discolour the water, and in such seasons, organic matter detrimental to health, must be held in solution in water procured from such a source. I believe the public of Manchester to be strongly interested in closely examining the merits and demerits of this scheme, and I have therefore procured permission from the Directors of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company to publish the following Report, made to them on this subject; and should it be found to contain any errors, no one will be better pleased to have them pointed out and rectified than my self.

While writing upon the supply of water to Manchester and Salford, it is but right to mention that the notoriously bad quality of the water supplied to the inhabitants of Manchester and Salford, originates, in a great measure, from the number of houses situated on the drainage ground of the Gorton Reservoirs ; the nature of the drainage-ground itself (which is partly moss-land), and the kind of manure (a great portion of which is night-soil and ashes) that is spread in large quantities over the collecting-ground : indeed, the Gorton Reservoirs may almost literally be looked upon, in warm dry weather, as little better than large cesspools, receiving the drainage and sewerage from a number of houses situated upon its gathering-ground * ; and persons who know the river Medlock, will believe that water, procured from this source, is even worse than the water received in the Gorton Reservoirs from its own drainage-ground.

For the preservation of the health of the people of Manchester and Salford, it is indispensably ne cessary that the worst of the water at present draining into the Gorton Reservoirs should be immediately diverted away from them, and a supply of wholesome water procured from other sources. This could be done by the Corporation or Water Works Company entering into arrangements with the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Rail way Company to keep the present Gorton Reservoirs entirely supplied with water from the reservoirs of the Railway Company situated near Whaley. The Railway Company, without the construction of any additional works, can immediately enter into arrangements to supply a quantity of water, equal at least to three and a half millions of gallons per * See Appendix L, page 79. day in the driest year known ; and have the powers, under an Act of Parliament obtained by them last year, to construct additional works, which, when completed, will enable them to supply at least seven and a quarter millions of gallons per day from the same source.

Five millions of gallons of this quan tity could in a very short time be collected, and supplied to the Gorton Reservoirs. The whole of this water is of the very best quality, averaging only from two to four degrees of hardness in the Company's reservoirs; it is collected from the rain that falls upon very steep land of the well-known Millstone Grit geological formation, and if regularly supplied to the Gorton Reservoirs would be very little deteriorated in its passage thither. As soon as the necessary works could be completed, for which the Railway Company have legislative powers, seven and a quarter millions of gallons of water of the very best quality, could be delivered per day, filtered, from a proposed service reservoir situated at High Lane, near Marple, at an altitude of 320 feet above Brown-street, Manchester.

When ever any further quantity than seven and a quarter millions of gallons per day should be required, additional legislative powers could be obtained to procure almost any further quantity (say. at least twenty millions of gallons of water per day) in connection with the present scheme, without detri ment to any private interest. Under these circum stances it is a question for the inhabitants of Man chester to consider whether it would not be much better to make arrangements with the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company, for a supply of water in bulk *, than to procure it by the prosecution of the Corporation Scheme, which, if ever carried out, can be of no immediate benefit to Manchester, and is certain of entailing an enormous expenditure. " 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view" of the promoters of the Corporation Scheme, and I fully believe distance only.

At any rate dis cussion on a subject of so much importance must be attended with benefit, and can do no harm. This must serve as an apology, if any be needed, for the present publication. * See Appendix R, page 87. REPORT, &c. To the Chairman and Directors of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company. My Lord and Gentlemen, I now propose to redeem the promise made in my Report, dated the 31st of July, 1847, and to prove how few are the sources from whence an abundant supply of good water can be supplied to Manchester for domestic purposes ; and of these sources, how immeasurably superior is the district of country from which your Company derive their waters for the navigation of their Peak Forest and Maccles field Canals, and the surplus of which waters (not required for navigation) were, by your Act of the last Session, rendered available, at your discretion, for domestic, trading, and other uses.

To enable you the better to follow my remarks, I have pre pared the accompanying map of the upland round Manchester, wrhich shows at a glance the whole ■' B of the sources from which a supply of water can be collected for the use of Manchester. It also shows, in relative position, the gathering grounds and reservoirs that are now used to supply dif ferent towns, canals, and streams, in the im mediate vicinity of Manchester, and will be found useful to refer to on this account. The town of Manchester is situated at an average height of about 120 feet above the mean level of the sea at Liverpool, and is bordered on the North-West, the North, the East, and the South, by high hills and upland that, in a distance varying from twelve to eighteen miles from the town, rise 1100 to 1900 feet above the sea, when they begin to fall in a contrary direction.

The highest points in this range of hills are Rivington Pike to the North-West of Manchester, 1545 feet above the mean level of the sea ; Blaekstone Edge to the North-East, about 1450 feet ; Holme Moss to the East, about 1859 feet ; Kinder Scout to the South- East, about 1981 feet ; Axe Edge, South-East by South, 1751 feet; and Bosley Minns, nearly di rect South, about 1260 feet. These hills rise very abruptly, and the numerous vallies and mountain gorges that intersect them in various directions contain channels, called rivers or streams, that drain off the rain which falls upon them. The names of the principal rivers deriving their waters from the sources now pointed out, are the Irwell, the Irk, the Medlock, the Tame, the Etherow, the Goyt, the Dane, and the Bollin. The waters of the whole of these rivers unite in the river Mersey, and by this channel are discharged into the sea at Li verpool. * The rivers upon which the towns of Manchester and Salford are situated, are the Irwell, the Irk, and the Medlock ; the two latter streams joining the Irwell within the town.

The area of land upon which the rain falls that feeds these streams be fore entering Manchester is about 163,000 statute acres; of which about 11,300 drain into the river Medlock; 17,000 into the Irk; and 134,700 into the Irwell ; these rivers, like all others having a similar origin, are very irregular as regards the quantity of water which passes down them at different seasons. After a continuance of wet weather, the rains Aoav off the ground immediately after reaching it ; the streams are of course soon swollen, and the quantity of water passing down them in a few hours, is often as much as in dry seasons will pass off in as many weeks or months. These floods, though chiefly of short duration, frequently do considerable mischief (as was the case last year, when the Medlock overflowed in Man chester and inundated Little Ireland), and they are now more sudden and violent than formerly, owing to the great improvement recently made in the drainage of land for agricultural purposes.

The courses of the tributaries of the rivers that pass through Manchester, are shown on the ac- See Appendix O, page 85. b companying map ; and these streams are very remarkable for the many useful purposes to which they are applied. They are made to turn innu merable water-wheels, that give motion to ma chinery of various kinds ; they are used to supply both the means of forming and condensing steam, that, properly directed, performs such a prodigy of labour with unceasing and untiring effect ; they are used to scour, bleach, and dye the goods they have helped to spin and weave ; and their flood-waters, collected in reservoirs, feed with water the canals and rivers that transport both the raw and manu factured material. They supply our houses with water for domestic purposes, and they perform the office of scavenger ; removing from our dwellings the excretion and filth, that, remaining near us, would undermine our health, engender fevers, and cause premature death.

If we examine the sources of the river Medlock, and notice the number of offices the water of this stream now performs, be sides receiving a great portion of the drainage of the town of Oldham, we shall be satisfied that • henceforth no wholesome water can be procured from it for the supply of Manchester ; and we shall also be convinced, that what is now collected from it in flood seasons for the town's supply, must be eventually abandoned. Examining in the same manner the sources of the river Irk, which receives also part of the drainage and sewerage of the town of Oldham, and the drainage and sewerage of Middleton, and Royton, remembering its limited drainage ground and pre-occupation, it will be obvious that no adequate amount of good water can ever be procured from this source for the domestic supply of Man chester.

Turning to the map and examining in detail the many sources of the river Irwell, with its tributary the river Roch, and noticing the large towns of Bolton, Bury, Heywood, and Rochdale, with a number of other places situated upon it ; and the way in which the ground is pre-occupied with reservoirs formed to collect water for millowners, canals, printworks, and the domestic sup ply of towns ; and considering, above all, the dif ficulty and consequent expense of marshalling and bringing such water, when collected, into Man chester, I believe we may rest satisfied that, although a supply of water might be procured in this di rection, yet that it could not be brought into the town without a very heavy expense. Turning, then, from the upland that drains direct through Manchester, to the sources of the river Tame, the Etherow, the Goyt, the Dane, and the Bollin, that unite in the river Mersey below Man chester, we find that the river Tame, to its crossing of the canal in Ashton-under-Lyne, receives the drainage from 25,280 statute acres, of which the flood-water (or that passing down the streams after heavy rains) belongs to the Huddersfield, and the Ashton Canal Companies, and that the whole course B of this stream and its tributaries are studded with mills.

Notwithstanding this, a large quantity of water, I have no doubt, might be procured in this locality for the supply of Manchester without detriment to private interests, if the high land that forms a large portion of the top boundary of the drainage ground were not covered with peat and moss, which would so discolour and de teriorate the quality of the water in certain seasons of the year, as to render if, when collected, unsuitable for the domestic supply of a town. The only remaining sources, then, from which water could be collected to supply Manchester, are from the rain that falls upon the high land directly East of Manchester, and which at present drains into the river Etherow in the valley of Longdendale, and from the rain which falls on the high land South- East and South of Manchester, and which at pre sent drains into the rivers Goyt, Dane, and Bollin.

You are aware that it is from the top portion of the drainage ground of the river Etherow (which consists, to its junction with the Goyt, of 36,170 statute acres) that the Corporation of Manchester propose to collect water for the use of the town of Manchester ; and that it is from a portion of the drainage ground of the river Goyt (which consists to its junction with the Etherow of 42,070 statute acres), and from a portion of the drainage ground of the rivers Dane and Bollin, South of Man chester, and above the level of the Macclesfield Canal (which consists of 22,800 statute acres), that you last year obtained legislative powers to collect and sell the surplus water not required for the use of the Peak Forest and Macclesfield Canals. I think, for the reasons before given, that it may be fairly admitted that the two sources last-men tioned are the only ones truly available for a supply of wrater for the use of the inhabitants of Man chester ; and I now propose to compare these two sources together, and to examine the relative value of each of them for the purpose of affording a pure and permanent supply of water to Manchester and Salford, as well as to Stockport.

In laying out a scheme to supply a town-population with water, it is of the very first importance that the quality of the water to be procured for this purpose, should be at all seasons of the year of the best description it is practicable to obtain ; that the sources from which the water is to be obtained shall be capable of yielding a supply equal to the present, and any future demand likely to arise for at least twenty years to come ; and that the cost of such water distributed to the inhabitants should be as low as is compatible with the first two propositions. If any two schemes should be equal in the first two respects, the cheapest is of course to be preferred; but if the same quantity of water, but of a bad or doubtful quality only, could be obtained at the lower price, then it would be preferable to choose the water of better quality, B even at a somewhat greater first cost.

The scheme of the Corporation of Manchester for supplying the town with water, as shown on the parliamentary plans deposited for 1848, is marked on the accompanying map (viz. at the top of the river Etherow, and East of Manchester) ; it proposes to impound the rain that will flow off about 18,000 statute acres of land in the valley of Longdendale, in five large impounding reservoirs, capable of containing collectively about 584,866,716 of cubic feet*: and, according to the report to the Corpora tion from their engineer, published in the Guardian newspaper of August 7. 1847, after the millowners shall have been supplied from these reservoirs, with seventy-five cubic feet of water per second for twelve hours of every working day, the remaining portion is to be taken to Manchester and distributed for the use of the town.

To accomplish these last objects, the Corporation propose to con struct a tunnel of a mile and a half long, through a hill near Mottram, and certain conduits or water courses, which are shown on the accompanying map, together with various service reservoirs, and a line of cast iron pipes. To make the water sup plied to the millowners as useful as possible to them, the Corporation also propose to construct certain additional reservoirs for the mill-owners' use ; the situations of which are likewise marked on the accompanying map. To ascertain the quality of the water that can be See Appendix A, page 63. collected by this scheme, the nature of the ground on which the rain falls, and off which it flows, into the impounding reservoirs must be ascertained; for rain flowing off the sides of hills into reservoirs, like rain flowing off the roof of a house into a rain butt, will be contaminated if it come in con tact Avith any impurities that are capable of mixing with it, or being taken up in solution.

Every one used to a manufacturing town must have noticed the sooty colour of rain water running from the roof of a house down its gutters, especially when a continued drought has been followed by a smart shower. Now, of the 18,000 acres off which the Corporation of Manchester propose to catch the rain, upwards of 12,000 acres, or two thirds of the whole quantity*, are covered with a decaying and decayed vegetable matter called peat, varying from twelve inches to twelve feet in thickness, the water passing off which, after rains in hot or warm weather, is something of the colour of dark sherry. By referring to the accompanying map, it will be seen that the moss or peat land is coloured brown, and the clear land tinted green ; and that it is so intermingled as to render impossible any attempt to separate the water flowing off the peat land, from the water flowing off the comparatively clear land.

It is true, that in a drought, and especially in cold weather, the water runs down the streams colourless, and but little contaminated with impu rities ; but the great bulk of the water (probably as * See Appendix A, page 62. much as three fourths of the whole quantity) flows off the ground immediately after rains, and comes down in a discoloured state, either holding in so lution or mechanical admixture, according to the temperature of the atmosphere and the season of the year, a large portion of peaty and objectionable matter. * It is argued that this matter may be got lid of by standing in reservoirs ; but the proofs are to the contrary. The town of Sheffield is sup plied with water from a large reservoir at Red mires (situated high up in the hills to the West of the town), and capable of containing above 30,000,000 cubic feet of water.

This reservoir re ceives the drainage from 912 statute acres of land, of which 670 acres are good pasture land, and 242 acres only, are moor or peat land ; while the super stratum of peat is only from six inches to four feet in depth, and is firm, and clothed with grass, intermingled with a small portion of heath. After the water leaves this reservoir, it passes along an open conduit four miles in length, and is then mixed in other reservoirs with water, draining from 820 acres of clear pasture land; and yet this comparative small quantity of shallow peat land (being about one fourth of the total quantity draining into the Redmires' reservoir, and one eighth only of the entire gathering ground) so discolours the water, that Mr. James Smith of Deanston, in the Second Report of the Commissioners for In quiring into the State of Populous Towns and * See Appendix B, page 63.

Large Districts, page 316, remarks on the dark colour of the water, and strongly recommends filtra tion. It is notorious, too, in Sheffield, that the Water Works Company's water is discoloured, especially after heavy rain following a drought. In a Report lately published on the sanatory condition of the borough of Sheffield, by James Haywood, Esq., professional chemist ; and William Lee, Esq., C.E., the former, in mentioning the supply of water to Sheffield, remarks, page 54 : " The water supplied from the Company is obtained from the hills of Millstone Grit in the high moors about six miles West of the town. It is there gathered into an extensive reservoir at the Redmires', from which it descends in a rapid stream to dams in the neighbourhood of Crookes. The water in the Redmires' reservoir is somewhat coloured by the peaty matter from which it flows ; but this is nearly all converted into carbonic acid and water by oxidation in its rapid descent along the open feeder above-named : so that by the time it reaches the dam from which the town is supplied, it is nearly colourless."

A chemical analysis is also given in the same page of the Report, which shows that each imperial gallon of the water contains one and six-tenths of a grain of organic matter from peat. No information is given in the Report as to the time of year, or temperature of the air, when this water was collected for analysis ; but, considering the water analysed to be a fair average specimen, the evidence shows that the water flowing off a drainage ground of which only one-eighth part is covered with comparatively shallow peat, after being collected in a large reservoir and running through an open conduit four miles in length, is discoloured and impregnated with organic matter; what, then, is to be expected from the quality and colour of water flowing off ground two-thirds of which is covered with moss and peat, varying from twelve inches to twelve feet in thickness ?