page_title: Essex and Suffolk Water
section_title: South Essex Waterworks Company
hierarchical_section_title: Essex and Suffolk Water / History / South Essex Waterworks Company
caption_attribution_description: English: Pumping Station. A typical piece of 1930's architecture, the pump house for Abberton Reservoir.
context_page_description: Essex and Suffolk Water is a water supply company in the United Kingdom. It operates in two geographically distinct areas, one serving parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, and the other serving parts of Essex and Greater London. The total population served is 1.8 million. Essex and Suffolk is a 'water only' supplier, with sewerage services provided by Anglian Water and Thames Water within its areas of supply. It is part of the Northumbrian Water Group.
context_section_description: The South Essex Waterworks Company was formed in 1861, and supplied drinking water to an area of 103 square miles (270 km²) stretching from Grays to East Ham and from Brentwood to the River Thames. Water was obtained from boreholes sunk into the chalk aquifer underlying the area, but by the time of the First World War, these supplies were not sufficient to meet the demand for water, and so the company looked further afield. Following the failure of the joint scheme with Southend Waterworks Company, they obtained an Act of Parliament in 1928 for a revised scheme which included a water treatment works at Langham with an intake from the River Stour. Treated water was pumped from the works to Tiptree works, and was pumped from there to a reservoir at Danbury. It then flowed by gravity to another storage reservoir at Herongate and then into the distribution network. One condition of the Act was that the company had to supply water to other local authorities which were outside their original supply area. 
  Although the Langham works could supply 12 million imperial gallons (55 Ml) per day, and came online in 1932, they estimated that they would still be facing a shortage by the end of the decade. The company obtained another Act of Parliament in 1935 for a second abstraction point on the Stour. This was located at Stratford St. Mary, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) downstream from the Langham intake. A pumping station pumped up to 35 million imperial gallons (160 Ml) of water per day to the new Abberton Reservoir, and a new treatment works was built at Layer de la Haye near its northern shore. Treated water was pumped to Tiptree, where it was blended with water from Langham. The pipeline from Stratford St. Mary was 11 miles (18 km) long, while Abberton Reservoir covers an area of 1,210 acres (4.9 km²) and lies in the valley of the Layer Brook. When full, it could hold 5,700 million imperial gallons (26,000 Ml). Layer treatment works could process 27 million imperial gallons (125 Ml) per day, and the system was designed to store water from winter rainfall for use in the summer months.
  Construction of the reservoir began in March 1936 and continued until the start of the Second World War in 1939. To pass under the River Colne, shafts were constructed on either side of the river, and a 12-foot (3.7 m) diameter tunnel was excavated between the shafts. The miners worked in compressed air, and twin pipes of 32-inch (81 cm) diameter were run through the tunnel. The original pipeline consisted of bitumen-lined steel tubes, some 34 inches (86 cm) and some 36 inches (91 cm) in diameter. A second pipeline of 40-and-42-inch (102 and 107 cm) diameter pipes was subsequently installed. Filling of the reservoir began in 1939 and was completed by the end of 1940. Some minor commissioning work, including the Abberton pumping station, was delayed until the end of hostilities. The project cost £500,000. Many of the construction workers came from Durham, and some stayed on to run the works, including Stanley Aldridge, who had been the Engineer, and became the General Manager of the Layer works.
caption: The 1930s style pump house at Abberton Reservoir
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