Now! Then! Landowners form a partnership to pipe water from Little Horton to Bradford, facilitating urban growth

Excerpt

On October 30, 1744, a preliminary meeting was held in Bradford, at which the indentures of co-partnership made between certain parties forming a company to carry water from Haycliffe Hill, in the township of Horton, to Bradford, was entered into. Contracts for pipes were let at the same meeting, and arrangements made for commencing the work.

In the 30th year of the reign of King George III (A.D. 1790), an Act was passed, entitled “An Act for preserving the works made for supplying the town of Bradford, and part of the township of Little Horton, with water; for the more easy recovery of the rents for the said water, and to enable the proprietors to borrow money for improving such works.”

These works were for a long time under the management of Mr. William Thornton, formerly of Westgate, Bradford, solicitor. The first reservoir is existent, and near the dwelling of a celebrated greengrocer, who has lived 60 years in her present habitation, and never slept a night out of it. She is now about 84 years of age, and is known by the euphonous name of Old Judy.

There were but ten shares in the original company of proprietors, and these were held by the following gentlemen: Messrs. Hardy, Smith, Sclater, Crossley, and a proprietor whose name I do not remember. In the year 1843 the above proprietary was wound up, and the works transferred to the late company, but ultimately abandoned. The first general meeting of The Bradford Water Works Company, constituted by Act of 5th of Victoria, met May 13, 1842.

In the year 1854, this company’s rights and works were purchased by the Corporation, who have now the sole supply of this invaluable element to the increasing population of the borough. Now, at a cost of something like £650,000 sterling, water will be supplied from the respective distances of 24 and 10 miles, at the rate of 10,000,000 gallons per diem. The supply from Barden is obtained from moorland, rising 1,650 feet, that from Thornton Moor, 1,400, above the level of the sea. The Barden supply is for the lower parts of the borough, and is calculated to furnish 8,500,000 gallons daily; the latter from beyond Denholme is for the higher parts of the borough, and calculated to furnish 1,000,000 gallons daily, which, with the 500,000 gallons at present obtained, will make up the above-named 10,000,000 gallons of daily supply.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

William White, shortly before the Corporation of Bradford muscled in after a century of private ownership:

Though [the waterworks] have undergone several improvements, these works are still on a very limited scale, the only source being at Brown Royd near Wibsey, whence the water is conveyed to a reservoir at the top of Westgate, holding 14,614 gallons, but only capable of supplying Northgate, Ivegate, Westgate, Darley Street, and a part of Cheapside, which form only a small portion of the town. To remedy this deficiency much money and labour have been expended in boring and fixing pumps, in various parts of the town. In 1826, Mr. Jas. Binns, after sinking a well 100 yards deep, in Dunkirk Street, succeeded in obtaining a copious spring of pure soft water, which is raised by an engine into a cistern holding 2,200 gallons, and is thence conveyed in carts and sold to the inhabitants, many of whom are allowed to fetch water from pumps in the factory yards, but still the supply is greatly inadequate to the wants of the town; it is however in contemplation to form public works on a scale amply sufficient for the whole town and suburbs, for which several sources exist within the distance of a few miles (White 1837).

Michael Taggart:

The broad pattern of water supply in Great Britain up to the end of the nineteenth century falls into three periods. Up to the eighteenth century, natural sources of water – rivers, ponds, springs, and wells – provided a generally adequate supply, which was safeguarded by the community. The development of larger urban centres in the eighteenth century put greater demands on these traditional sources of water. Inadequate supply and pollution became major problems, and most local authorities were unable or unwilling to make the investments necessary to increase supply. So from the late eighteenth century through to about 1870, this prime necessity of life came increasingly to be provided by private enterprise. For variety of reasons the private provision of water in turn was found wanting, and the final phase of the development was the resumption of collective responsibility for water supply. This so-called “municipalization” of water supply – describing the purchase of these private water companies by local authorities – began in earnest around mid-cetury and escalated as the century progressed. The experience of water supply in Bradford conforms to this pattern (Taggart 2002).

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Original

On October 30, 1744, a preliminary meeting was held in Bradford, at which the indentures of co-partnership made between certain parties forming a company to carry water from Haycliffe Hill, in the township of Horton, to Bradford, was entered into. Contracts for pipes were let at the same meeting, and arrangements made for commencing the work.

In the 30th year of the reign of King George III (A.D. 1790), an Act was passed, entitled “An Act for preserving the works made for supplying the town of Bradford, and part of the township of Little Horton, with water; for the more easy recovery of the rents for the said water, and to enable the proprietors to borrow money for improving such works.”

These works were for a long time under the management of Mr. William Thornton, formerly of Westgate, Bradford, solicitor. The first reservoir is existent, and near the dwelling of a celebrated greengrocer, who has lived 60 years in her present habitation, and never slept a night out of it. She is now about 84 years of age, and is known by the euphonous name of Old Judy.

There were but ten shares in the original company of proprietors, and these were held by the following gentlemen: Messrs. Hardy, Smith, Sclater, Crossley, and a proprietor whose name I do not remember. In the year 1843 the above proprietary was wound up, and the works transferred to the late company, but ultimately abandoned. The first general meeting of The Bradford Water Works Company, constituted by Act of 5th of Victoria, met May 13, 1842.

In the year 1854, this company’s rights and works were purchased by the Corporation, who have now the sole supply of this invaluable element to the increasing population of the borough. Now, at a cost of something like £650,000 sterling, water will be supplied from the respective distances of 24 and 10 miles, at the rate of 10,000,000 gallons per diem. The supply from Barden is obtained from moorland, rising 1,650 feet, that from Thornton Moor, 1,400, above the level of the sea. The Barden supply is for the lower parts of the borough, and is calculated to furnish 8,500,000 gallons daily; the latter from beyond Denholme is for the higher parts of the borough, and calculated to furnish 1,000,000 gallons daily, which, with the 500,000 gallons at present obtained, will make up the above-named 10,000,000 gallons of daily supply.

396 words.