The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-09-18 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

chiefly of a light and easy character, and it is crossed by
bridges of stone or iron, at the necessary roads and occupation
crossings. Several heavy and important puddle trenches
have, however, been executed on this portion of the works.
These have all been completed, and now the well-smoothed
slopes of the varions cuttings and embankments present
nothing to the eye to indicate the great engineering skill and
labour that has been bestowed upon these really important
portions of the undertaking—the constant object of the engi-
neer throughout the whole of the works having been to have
them so constructed that not a single drop of water, to which
the promoters—namely, the Corporation—may by their act be
entitled, shall, if possible, be allowed to escape.
The southern termination of the goit, or canal, brings us to
the first extensive storage reservoir, called the Anglezark
reservoir. This reservoir is about one mile and a half long,
and will, when full, cover a space of about 185 acres. Its
capacity for storage is estimated at about eleven hundred
million gallons, which will be supplied by the goit before
described, and by the watershed, or gathering ground, from
several thousand acres, including also the river Yarrow, which
takes its rise on the eastern side of it, in the hilly district of
the Anglezark Moor, and passes through the lower portion of
the reservoir, where its progress is now arrested by the
Knowsley embankment.
The locality of the Anglezark reservoir, and the various
works therefrom to form it into a reservoir, are as follow :
namely, the reservoir commences at Heapey, near to where
the canal or goit deboaches into it, and is in fact a valley of
about one mile and a half in length, lying between hills, the
eastern side being the Anglezark Moor, with some fine wooded
and pasture lands at the foot, extending to the borders of the
reservoir, and on the western side are the wooded and pasture
lands of Heath Charnock, Anderton, &c. This reservoir ter-
minates at the Knowsley embankment, near to an elegant
mansion lately erected by Peter Martin, Esq., a county magis-
trate for the Bolton district, and which mansion is situated on
the banks of the Rivington, or lower reservoir, to be hereafter
described.
For the purpose of enclosing and retaining the waters in
this reservoir the following works have been constructed, and
almost completed ir—First, the Heapey embankment, at the
top or northern extremity of the reservoir. This embank-
ment is about 100 yards in length, and about 32 feet high'
from its base. It extends across a narrow pass, and will re
tain the waters which used to flow from the Anglezark Moor
down the Heapey Brook through the Heapey valley westward.
The next work on this reservoir is the Heath Charnock
embankment, now complete. This is an extensive work,
being about 840 yards long, and has a side bank made to re-
tain the waters in the reservoir on the western side, where the
boundary of the valley was not sufficiently high for this pur-
pose. Its greatest height is about thirty feet above the old
natural surface of the ifrotind.
Opposite to this bank; and on the eastern side of the reser-
voir, there is also a side bank called. the' Leicester Mill bank.
This is not a water-tight bank, and has in the middle of it a
three-arched bridge, of light and elegant design, over the river
Yarrow. Through this bridge the' waters- will have access on
both sides of the embankment,. upon the filling of the Angle-
zark reserfoir. This embankment also carries the road that
used to' pass along the bottom of the valley from: Anglezark
Moor and Leicester Mill to Chorley.
The new road is now continued from the' southern end of
the Leicester Mill Bank, along the side of the reservoir, over
the Knowsley embankment, into the' old road to- Chorley.
We now come teethe heaviest and most expensive work that
that has been exectited to enable this reservoir to be formed,
viz., the Knowsley embankment.
his embankment is about 270 yara• long, and crosses
the valley at a height of about forty-five feet about its-sur-
face. This embankment, as are also the Heapey and Heath.
Charnock banks, is'perfectly water-tight, having a puddle-
wall running along its' entire length. The' puddle-wall
founded on a water-tight stratum, which, in several places in'
this embankment, is-above twenty feet below the bottom of
the valley, or above 115. feet in its total height to the top of
the embankment. Through. the embankment on the western
sidle is carried a tunnel, provided with a shaft and proper
verges and apparatus-for discharging the waters of this reser-
voir' into the Rivington, or lower storage, reservoir;
IThe Knowsley embankment; although not the' most ex-
tetssive, was in reality the' most difficult and formidable of
all the embankments- to' construct. The chief difficulty
being to obtain access to' a. really' water-tight stratum for
the' foundation for the paddle-wall, -which was not obtained
till the• workmen had excavated to 'a depth of seventy-two
feet below the surface of the 'valley ;- and here a substantial
foundation, was found upon, the' solid shale. The experi-
mental boring-at this point gave 'softie interesting geological
features` of detail. The mass of shale was found to be fifty-feet
deep without' aloint ; through an additional depth of eighty
feet more the-shale was found a little jointy, and below this
mon:nowt-mass-the millstone grit,-the 'prevailing formaticv
of the district, ritta reached, whereas-at the lower end cf
the goit, the grit was reached at a depth ,of eighty feet, with.--
out any superineumbent shale.]
The-Rivington or lower reservoir commences immediately at-
the foot of the Knowsley embankment, and a thence proceeds-
along the valley of the Yarrow under' the 'house of Peter
Martin,,Esq. Followingthe valley of theYntrow, the reservoir
is held up by the Yarrow embankment, at apoint a little below
Mr. Martin's house; and then is continued alongthe Rivington
valley, nearly north andsouth, having on its-eastern side the
village of •Rivington,and the well-wooded: and pasture lands
at the foot'of the famonS Rivington Pike, which may be seen,
throughout the whole of this reservoir, towering -above the
low lands to the south and west of it.
The western side of thereservoir is bounded by the western
lands of Anderton; and across the valley at the lower end next
to ilerwich has been "constructed the Horwich embankment,
,an extensive work, about fifty-eight feet in height, which ter-
minates the RtVington; or largest storage reservoir._ This re-
servoir, when fall, win carer about 268 acres and' its storage
capacity will be about 100;000,000 gallorses.which. added
the-Anglezark rp.ervoir,- Email average of above 450
aeres, and a storage capacity of about 3,000,000,000-gallons, for
the two large reservoirs alone.

The prin-cipal engineering- works on the RiVington Reser-
voir are the sido-bank ncroas, the-river Yarrow, before men-
tined, which is in progress, and only wants. the pitching and
hyewash; or overflow, for the flood-waters, to-complete it ; the
Bakkboy embankment, which has for some time been
finished,, and which crosses thereservoir opposite to Rivington„
earrying_the road from that village to Anderton and Chorley,
which road used to run Along the valley, past the old Black-
boy,-or Blacka-moeFs-head inn. This house -is- now under-
going the process of-demolition. Its successor,,-.the intended
nee*. nockboy Innel:l3s -been erected and completed unme-
dia.telyr under Rivington Church; and close to the side of the
new-road, carried across- the- valley by the Blaekboy rnbank-.
mentrby Robt. Andrews,Esq".ktrd of the manor of Rivington,.
and ti.cotmty magistrate.
Nature has there--assisted i the engineer, .and saved the
pockets of the Corporation,. by the depth of the-valley down
which the reservoir will be formed, for we meet with no fun,
titer artificial boundary- to-.the reservoir till we. arrive at the.
Millstone embankment, a wayside bank, across a low dip in:
the. Anderton side of the valley-. This embankment is about
800 •yards -long, and has been for some time completed. Its-
greatest depth is about 30- feet. It also carries the turnr-llee-
road. from .Bolton to- Chorley and Preston- over its surface, in
liem of the old roast.whieli is now inside the reservoir.
The final great work: of this reservoir iS. the Horwich em-
bankment, which commences at the southern extremity of the
Millstone Bank, and :is,. indeed, partly a continuation of, it,
and,. proceeds by the side .of the Bolton- and Chorley road
southward for some distance, and then turns nearly at right
angles from the Anderton side across thevalleyto the Eying-
ton side. Its length is- about 640 yards, and ,its greatest-
heiglit is about 58-feet above the Rivington valley.
At the foot of the . Horwich embankment, without the
reservoir, and immediately adjoining. it, are the filtration
works.. These consist of six compardnents for filtering, and
two pure water tanks,..with which the main , leading to Liver-
pool communicates. _

The above works comprise the whole of the scheme for the
collecting, storing, and filtering the water for the supply of
the town of Liverpool, and are altogether rapidly approaching
completion. There are at present employed upon, these works
about 1,400 men, each day, and about 100 horses.
[Each of -these embankments. is furnished with a waste-
weir
ita/..lfroowmingov
etrflheowi:o surplus,themweatbearntkomesencatery•
and
so pre-
venting are
so constructed as to run the waste water directly into the next
et these
lower-reservoir to that front which it has. escaped, except.
the Horwieh embankment, the waste-weir-of which commu-
nicates directly with the brook. The embankments are also
furnished with apparatus. admirably suited for running- off
the-supply, and also for -compensation water, both of which
will be regulated with the nicest accuracy.]
After having walked over and inspected the whole of the
works, as far as the Blackboy embankment, in the middle of
the Rivington reservoir, the company sat down to a sumptu-
ous collation in the New Rouse, Blackboy Inn.
After the cloth had been removed, the Chairman gave the
health of " Her Majesty the Queen," which was drunk with
all the honours. Mr.. Aldernum S. Holme next proposed
" The Emperor-of the French," remarking on the excellent
moral and social qualities of the French people, as he had
himself seen and experienced. The health of " The Mayor"
was drunk with all the honours, which his. worship tastefully
acknowledged. " The Dock Committee" was then proposed
by Mr. Fernihough, and, having been duly honoured by the
company, was responded to by Mr. C. Turner, chairman of
the Dock Committee.

The company then proceeded to inspect the filtering beds,
and other portions of the works in that vicinity,
The filtering beds occupy the eastern half of the valley,
immediately to the south of the Iforwich embankment, to
the extent of about 1000 feet, the western half being occu-
pied by two equalizing or pure water tanks. The filtering
beds are large excavated tanks, each 350 feet long, and 150
feet broad, separated from each other by an embankment
about ten feet wide at the top. They are each about ten feet
deep, and the filtering apparatus commences by a covered
drain sunk about two feet below the general bottom of the
tank, on each side converging in the middle to a sluice valve
communicating with the pure water tanks by a tunnel and
tube. Above the drain referred to is laid a bed of rough
broken stones, two feet in thickness ; this is covered by suc-

cessive layers of gradually finer broken stones and gravel, till

having reached a thickness of nearly fire feet, when it is to be

covered by a stratum eighteen inches thick of washed sand.
The pure-water or equalizing tanks are each about 450 feet
in length, by about 300 feet in width. They are puddled all

round, and covered on their floors and sides by thick and well-
set masonry. They communicate with each other by sluice
valves, and are so constructed that either one or both may be
used, according as convenience may require. They are also
furnished with a bye-wash for taking off the surplus water;
and, likewise, they have a means of communicating this sur-
plus water with the compensation water to the mills, which
runs into a brook. In the bottom of these pure-water tanks
there is an admirably contrived means of keeping the water
in a ceaseless current.

Most of the works are nearly, and some of the most impor-
tant, completely finished, those in the Anglezark reservoir

being so far advanced that they will be finished by Saturday
at the farthest. The contractors are busy with their respec-
tive works; an extent of fifteen miles of the large pipes has
already been laid, and only nine miles remain to be put in.
The chief difficulty hitherto experienced in the laying of these
pipes, by the committee and their contractors, has been over-
come in reference to the St. Helens deviation, and the work
will now be completed without further interruption.
Having completed their tour of inspection, the excursionists
were again assembled at the Horwich Station, where, having
re-entered the carriages of the special train, they started on
their homeward journey, and arrived in Liverpool about half-
past eight o'clock, haring spent a day of unalloyed pleasure,
each one impressed with the importance and scientific skill
displayed in the magnificent works which they had inspected.
Several of the gentlemen present, in all probability, from
the circumstance of not being very much acquainted with the
nature of such works as those they had been inspecting,
seemed to doubt the probability of a large supply of water
being collected in the different reservoirs ; an impression
further borne out by the dry condition the works were in at
the time of the inspection. To obviate any misconception on
this point, it may be by many deemed sufficient to state that
the area of the basin which is drained into these works is
9,847 acres, or nearly 15} square miles. As some difference
of opinion existed on this point of supply, prior to the
undertaking being proceeded with, Mr. Newlands, the
Borough Engineer, and Mr. James Simpson, C.E., were
requested to investigate the matter, and draw up a report
on the subject, which they did, and presented to the Town
Council early in 1849. From that report it appears that a
computation, extended over an average of six years, gives for
the district a rainfall of 21,600,000 gallons per day, which,
after deducting 8,200,000, the amount required for compensa-
tion, would leave 13,600,00(Y gallons per day for the supply of
Liverpool. It is true, these gentlemen stele that such an
average is excessive, as it does not take into account the defi-
ciency caused by the extra dry seasons. They further express
an opinion, that the probable deficiency, arising from the cause
referred to, will be aggravated by the storage of the reser-
voirs not being sufficient to equalise- the water for main-
tMning such a supply. These gentlemen; in their very able
report state the aggregate contents of the• three' reservoirs at
2,849,497;575 gallons, while Mr. Hawksley estimates their
capacity at 3,156,000;000 gallons. A disagreement on this
and other points of vital interest in connexion with so impor-
tant an undertaking having been thus brought Under notice,
the Council referred the matter to the arbitration. of Mr.
Robert Stephenson, the celebrated engineer. That gentle-
man, after a most minute and painstaking investigation into
all the detaile- of the question, and delivering a very elaborate
opinion concerning them; thussurnmarises the results of his-
examination :

" The contested parts•of the•prbject have had my uninter-
rupted study, and:l believe it has-been made evident :

" That the Rivington scheme is-adequate to the supplir' of
an abundance of water to meet both;the immediate wants of
the town, and also the prospective demands which may arise
from any probable increase of population for the next twenty
years to come.

"That the reservoirs- are fitted for' such a storage as will
sectire an uniform and copious supply at all seasons."

Arthe terms of the above report appear 'considerably antago-
nistic to the opinion carefully formed and deliberately ex-
pressed by the Borough Ergineer, it is but right to give also
Mi. Stephenson's remarks Ph' to the discrepancy in the com-
puted extent of storage. He-says, at page 34, of his report :
" The capacity of the reservoirs 'is -stated by Mr: Newlands to
be 2,839;000,000 gallons, and by Mr. Hawksleyi 3;156,000,000
gallons;. which difference is canned by the addition, when re-
quirediof two feet to their depth by moveable shuttles,or flush-
boards on the weir,an intention probably unknown to Mr. New-
lands." Agehl, in respect to the anticipated daily supply as
estimated by Mr. Newlands, Mr; Stephenson,. at page 37 of
his report, sayt —"I feel it but-justice to Messre.:Simpson
and Newlands to state, that when they made their calculations
on this subject they were unacquainted with several, arrange.
ments contemplated' by Mr. Hawkslsy, which are not apparent
on the face of the parliamentary plans, although having a
decided beariugn. pon the final results."