The Express.
London, England, 1850-06-20 00:00:00

TIM
MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS.

MANCHESTER WATER WORKS.
MANCHESTER, luxe 17.
11:rwl Health beiv!ne recommended a imp-
ply of water for London, obtained by suffice drainage
final Begshot Heath, on the model- of imilar works
In Lancashire, it may be interesting to the readers of
the Awes, to learn some particulars of the !pr-
een referred to in this county. Of the venous
Menem he ambit the towns of Lancashire with
wake, Ibe a in coarse of formation by the
of iiseibester, from designs laid down
ryerleri.itriF. Beleosa, C. 8., sad approved by parlia-
ment, are perhaps the most worthy of notke both
from the magnitude of the undertaking aad tae sec-
etas which is likely to attend the enterprise.
The present supply of water to Manchester, col-
lected at Gorton, a few miss east of the town, by a
private company, does not exceed two-and-a-half mil-
lion gallons per day, which for a population of
400,000 people, is six gallons per day to each indi-
vidual, and the company are stated to be capable of
supplying only double this quality at the utmost,
whereas it has been calculated that fairly to supply
the population, the teseselse, wombats's, and °Manse
the sewers, 30 gallops per head would be
required. Owing to the present insufficient quantity
the mains are only charged with water for a few
hours in the course of each day, and besides the in-
convenience of not having a supply at all times, a
great evil results in a unitary point of view to the
poor, who from the want of necessary vessels to store
a sufficient quantity for use, are unable to pay so
much attention to cleanliness as they otherwise would.
To remedy the deficiency the corporation are now
going to gathering grounds, a distance of nineteen
miles from Manchester, to collect the water flowing
a a district of 19,000 acres of bill and moorland. To
prevent opposition from the private company now
serviog the town they have bought the whole of the
present works, and from the new source of supply
they calculate upon increasing the average daily
quantity at their disposal to forty million gallons.
It is now the custom in Lancashire (says the report, by
the General Board of Health, on the water supply to the
metropolis, a copy of which is given in the Daily News of
the 3i inst.), where the value of pure soft water, for the pur-
pose of manufactures, is highly appreciated, to collect the
surface drainage of • lugs extent of high, barren.
soil, and then to distribute it at will. The
higher ground is selected for the double reason that
the distribution Is more easily effected, and that the nearer
to the actual rainfall the water is collected, the freer it will
bon from adventitious impurities. The practice in Liam-
shire has been to take some elevated ground, generally ste-
rile moorland, or sandy heath, and to run • catch•water
trench cr conduit round the hill, midway, or as high up as
may be convenient for the sake of fall, regard being had
to the space of gathering ground. An embankment is then
thriwn across some natural gorge, at the nearest poiat at
which a reservoir may be formed, without the forme of
excavation. lute this the rain-water is led and stored, to be
media doe and print werkelor for other manufacturing par-
poses. hails, in reanylinstanese been previously filtered.
This extract is so far applicable to the new Man-
che' er Water Works scheme as to serve as a general
description. The plan adopted by the Manchester
corporation is to go up the vale of the river Etherow,
nearly to its source, on the summit of the mountain-
ous rang* of hills separating Lancashire and
Yorkshire, and there colhct both the sur-
face drainage which falls into the River
Etherow, and the numerous brooks and springy
which flow from the aides of these hills, and ,'ore
them for use in a chain of immense reservoirs, from
whence their contents can be brought to Manchester
at will. The wa•er is almost unexceptionable as to
quality, being soft, and free from impurities, to a
degree but rarely met with. The River Etherow
forms the boundary between Cheshire and Derbyshire
for roue miles from near its source, and the deep vale
through which it flows rising 19 miles cut of Man-
chester,
leads in the direction of Stockport, six I
miles south of Manchester. It has been necessary for
the corporation therefore after collecting as muds
water as is necessary for their use over the first five
I or six miles of the vale, to divert ir from the vale and
bring it into Lancashire by means of a tunnel, under
the bills at Mottram, which, form the boundaries of
Cheshire and Lancashire, and from thence to Tetlow
Fold, Godley, hoe) which place it is' conveyed to
Dalton and thence to Manchester. The whole
chain of reservoirs may be placed in the
following order. lst. The Woodhead reservoir,
2. The Tonide Reservoir. 3. The Rhodes Wood
Reservoir. These are all on the River Etherow. 4.
The Armfield Reservoir s and, 5. The Hollingworth
Reservoir. These are situate at Tintwi)tle. 6. The
Tetluw Fold Reservoir, at Godley. 7. The Denton
Reservoir. The five reservoirs first named extend
over a distance of more than six miles, and tae water
is brought in an open water-course cr conduit along
this chain of reservoirs, of which the New River
into London may give some ides. This

conduit over a coniidemble portion of the
distance, however, has to be lined with stone,
owirg to the soil wanting sufficient tenacity to be
eepended upon. The conduit conducts the water, in
fact, to the eastern mouth of the tunneL The tunnel
is of six feet diameter, lined with stone. and is 2,100
yards in length. From Godley, which is within nine
miles of Manchester, the water is conveyed in cast-
iron pipes of four feet diameter to Denton, three and
a half miles nearer Manchester ; and Irom thence to
Manchester by cut-iron pipes of a rather smaller
size.

The first point on the Vale of Etherow where it his
been found practicable to construct a reservoir, is at
Woodheed, only a few hundred yards below the
bride where the Manchester and Sheffield Railway,
after alertieg the Derbyshire side of the vale for five
or six miles, crosses the river to the Cheshire side and
is then loot in the great sun mit tunnel which conducts
it into Yorkshire. The elevation of this district,
known as the Penine range, is from 1,100 to 2,000
feet above the level of the sea ; and the rain fall has
been estimated at GO inches. The valley of Etherow
is well suited to the formation of reservoirs on the
principle pointed out by the Board of Health. From
the point where the railway enters the Rood-
head tunnel, at the top of the vale, two lofty
ranges of hills, one on the Derbyshire side and the
other on the Cheshire side, stretch away westward,
leaving a valley between them so narrow that, in
many plat*s it does not exceed a hundred yards in
width at the bottom, and is rarely a quarter of a mile
across. The sides cf the vale rise in barely accessi-
ble slopes—often in steep, rugged, and precipitous
surfaces—to a height of 600 or 800 feet. The rail-
war is carried along the southern, or Derbyshire side,
and skirts the hills midway; whilst at a similar ele-
vation on the northern, or Cheshire side, is the old
turnpike-road from Manchester to Sheffield. The
eye, whilst traversing this singularly picturesque
valley, rests upon alternate patches of pastare,
meadow, wood, and moor land. The river Ethe-
row itself is like a silken or silver thread
spread out in devious twists and turns along
the bottom of the narrow vale. Here and there along
the sides of the hills are seen dark and deep ravines,
from which rush small pellucid streams to mingle
with the waters of the river. It is easy to conceive how
much nature has done here of herself towards the'
formation of a reservoir. The two sides and bottom
are there, without a yard of excavation necessary;
throw two barriers OkrOMI at convenient diatoms and
the work is accomplished. Such, in fact, is the Wood-
head reservoir of the Manchester Corporation
Waterworks, now nearly completed. At the upper
end d the vale a stone barrier, or residuum,
wall, 120 yards in length, and rather more than 20
feet high, with sluices and gates to let in or shut out
the water, is built across. From this point the vale
winds round from east to south-west, and at a dis-
tance of a mile and a half below, the other embank-
anent is thrown up, which completes the reservoir.
To allow for the rapid fall of the ground, however,
the lower embankment hu to be carried to a height
of 90 feet ; and ea the pressure of water spinet it at
all times will be very considerable, great care has to
he exercised that it may be sufficiently strong.
To this end the base of it is 158 yards in thick-
ets', and the top of it narrows to 20 yards.