Lincoln Corporation Waterworks and its predecessors and successors have provided a public water supply and sewerage and sewage treatment services to the city of Lincoln, England. The Romans are known to have built a conduit from the Roaring Meg stream to a water tower in East Bight. Further development took place when the Lincoln Waterworks Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. cxi) was passed to establish the Lincoln Water Company, following a national outbreak of cholera in 1831–32.
The main source of supply was formed by impounding Prial Drain to form Hartsholme Lake. The water was filtered by sand filters at Boultham, and was pumped to a service reservoir at Westgate. Lincoln Corporation wanted to gain control of their water supply, and bought out the water company in 1871. The enabling act of Parliament, the Lincoln Waterworks Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. cxlix) also allowed them to construct a sewerage network, which fed a sewage farm at Canwick, but the Bracebridge area was not connected to the sewers, and waste water polluted local watercourses. There were sporadic outbreaks of typhoid and cholera, although the corporation argued that these might not be linked to a polluted water supply.
Two instances of typhoid were reported in November 1904, leading to a significant outbreak. By late April 1905, 131 individuals had succumbed to the disease, with an additional 1,045 affected. The waterworks became pioneers by introducing sodium hypochlorite to disinfect the water, a pioneering move in the country. In response, Neil McKechnie Barron assumed the role of corporation engineer, overseeing efforts that connected Bracebridge to sewers, enhanced water filtration, constructed the Westgate water tower, and initiated the quest for a new water source. Despite objections from Nottinghamshire about water leaving the county, new boreholes were drilled at Elkesley in the Nottinghamshire red sandstone beds. This project, which involved laying a pipeline from Elkesley to Lincoln, was completed by 4 October 1911, marked by a grand opening ceremony. Following the detection of E-coli bacteria in the water in 1932 and 1933, chlorination plants were integrated into the system. As the population increased, a fifth borehole was constructed at Elkesley and another was built at Newton on Trent.
Lincoln ceased to be responsible for its own water supply from 1961, when the waterworks became part of the Lincoln and District Water Board. The pipeline from Elkesley to Lincoln was duplicated, but after 62 years of trouble-free service, one of the two beam engines at Elkesley exploded in 1973, and both were replaced by electric pumps. At around the same time, the Anglian Water Authority, newly created under the terms of the Water Act 1973, became responsible for the regions water supply, sewerage and sewage treatment.
Following the passing of the Public Health Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 63), there was a greater understanding of the need to deal with waste water. Lincoln was fortunate in that the engineer George Giles came to the city in 1847, working on the construction of the Great Northern Railway, and he had experience in sewerage systems. He produced a detailed report for the corporation, which included maps of the whole city, but there was significant opposition to any scheme to install underground drainage. In 1850 the principle of underground drainage was adopted, although Giles' report was not, but it took until 1881 until a scheme was fully implemented.
History Lincoln has been a centre of population since at least Roman times, when it was the site of the garrison of Lindum Colonial. Details of the water supply are a little sketchy, but it appears that they built a water tower or cistern in East Bight, close to the Newport Arch, which was connected to about of pipework, known as the "Conduit", at the far end of which was the Roaring Meg, a fast-flowing stream. The conduit was made of earthenware pipes, laid in a bed of cement. Archaeological excavation in the 1950s and 1970s led to speculation as to whether it ever functioned, because of the difference in levels between the stream and the water tower, but further investigation in 2007 as part of a housing development found clear signs that it was used for a considerable period.
In the 19th century, Lincoln saw a rapid rise in population as a result of industrialization, from 7,197 people in 1801 to 17,536 in 1851. Much of the population lived in unsanitary conditions. National outbreaks of cholera in 1831–32 and 1848–49 led to an act of Parliament, the (9 & 10 Vict. c. cxi), authorizing the creation of the Lincoln Water Company, with the engineer Thomas Hawksley responsible for the design. Under the act, the company was responsible for supplying the city of Lincoln and parts of Lindsey, Boultham, Bracebridge, Skellingthorpe and Kesteven, an area of . Charles Marshall became the company's manager and Henry Teague became the resident engineer.
An earth dam was built across the Skellingthorpe valley to the west of the city, to impound the waters of the Prial Drain. This became known as Hartsholme Lake and covered an area of , with a capacity of . An open channel, some long carried the water to Altham Terrace in Boultham, where the water was filtered by two sand filters. It was then pumped through a cast iron pipe to an open service reservoir at Westgate, where a gas engine pumped water to the higher parts of the area of supply. The main pumping engine at Boultham was a beam engine, bought second hand from a Cornish tin mine. It could deliver per day and the system was operational by 1849, when it was supplying water to 733 houses. Where there were courtyards and closes, a standpipe was installed, which allowed many households to access the water supply. The population continued to expand, and the pumping engine was replaced by a engine. A pipeline also ran to the south, to feed a service reservoir on Bracebridge Heath.
Corporation ownership As in many other towns and cities, Lincoln Corporation were keen to gain control of their own water supply, and the (34 & 35 Vict. c. cxlix) allowed them to take over the Lincoln Water Company. They paid £59-18-0 (£59.90) per share, and also paid off the debts which the company had, resulting in a final cost of £63,837. They employed J. H. Teague as their engineer, the son of Henry Teague who had served the water company for 25 years. The act also enabled the corporation to construct sewers, a waste disposal works, and a sewage works. A new service reservoir was built on Cross O'Cliff Hill, near to the psychiatric hospital. Bracebridge was by then a part of the city, and the water mains were extended in that area. At Boultham, water from ballast pits was used to supplement the supply from Hartsholme Lake, and a third filter was constructed. The option to take water from the River Witham was also included in the scheme, from an intake situated downstream of Bracebridge. By 1880, surface water and sewage from the city were conveyed to a works at Great Northern Terrace, and then to a sewage farm at Canwick, to the south-east of the city. However, the residents of Bracebridge were not connected to the sewerage network, and much of their waste was discharged into local watercourses. Despite receiving notices from the Medical Officer of Health in 1879, 1883 and 1885 calling attention to this situation, the corporation stated that the sporadic cases of cholera and typhoid were not necessarily linked to polluted water supplies.
By this time the population had increased to around 37,500, and an additional pump was installed at Boultham, capable of pumping per day. More water was taken from the Witham, and in 1901, drilling started at Boultham, to see if water could be extracted from the red sandstone below the works. £24,000 was borrowed to fund the work, but progress was extremely slow. By 1901, the population had reached 50,000, and more filters were constructed at Boultham, to filter the increasing volume of water supplied. Two cases of typhoid were reported in November 1904, which had increased to 18 by early January 1905. The Medical Officer of Health declared it to be a serious outbreak, but the corporation refused to issue a public safety notice, for fear of a panic. Two weeks later, they issued notices to recommend boiling the water, but only to houses in the Sincil district. By 21 February, 61 people had died, and 732 people had contracted the disease. People abandoned using the public water supply, and returned to old wells and conduits, despite these having been declared unsafe. The numbers had increased to 113 dead and 1,006 with the disease by April, when the waterworks became the first in the country to add sodium hypochlorite to the water to disinfect it. The Great Northern Railway delivered tankers of clean water to the city throughout the epidemic, which began to wane by late April. A total of 131 people had died, and 1,045 had caught the infection by the time the crisis was over.
In the aftermath, intakes on the Pike Drain, Catchwater Drain and River Witham were shut off, and the corporation engineer resigned, to be replaced by Neil McKechnie Barron. He improved the filtering of the water at Boultham, and had a last attempt at extracting water from the borehole there. It was some deep and although it proved capable of supplying large volumes of water, it was salty and could not be used. Automatic monitoring of the filtration rate was introduced, and the works were extended to include an aeration tank and clear water reservoir. There was a drought in the summer of 1905, which restricted the amount of water available, so a new intake was opened on the River Witham, further upstream beyond Bracebridge, and Bracebridge was connected to the sewerage network, to prevent pollution of the watercourses.
Barron recommended that service reservoirs should be covered, rather than open, and that a water tower should be built to create adequate water pressure for the higher areas of the city. Together with two new rising mains, the project was costed at £50,000. An important advocate was Bishop E. King, who argued that Barron should be given more support for his scheme, and who calmed the people as well as representing them to the corporation. A sign of things to come was a grant for £50,000 to fund the construction of a water tower and covered reservoir in 1907.
Water from Nottinghamshire The corporation wanted the tower to be of high quality, and asked architects to submit designs. Barron also submitted his own design, but the one chosen was by Reginald Blomfield. Westgate Water Tower consists of a circular brick tower, surrounded by a square structure constructed of Darley Dale gritstone, decorated with fleur-de-lys motifs to represent the patron saint of Lincoln, the Virgin Mary. The tank at the top holds of water, and its round design ensures there are no corners where water could stagnate. A replacement for the Cross O'Cliff Hill reservoir was constructed a little further to the south on Grantham Road, where the underlying rock was close to the surface. The new structure was circular, with a radius of , with walls that were vertical on the outside, but sloping on the inside, with the width increasing from at the top to at the bottom. The walls were high, and the roof was supported by a number of columns. The pump house, which was designed by Barron in the Baroque Revival style, is located on the south-east edge of the tank and is now grade II listed. The reservoir had a capacity of , which would supply the city for about three days at the time it was constructed.