The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-10-10
WOLSEY'S WATER PIPES.

Hampton Court
 As long ago as the sixteenth century Coombe was noted for it's fresh water
 springs, and when the great Cardinal Wolsey built Hampton Court Palace he
 determined to bring his supply of
 dringing water from Coombe. An ela- | borate and very successful method was
 employed for collecting the water from | the various springs on the hill. There
 were three principal conduit houses, which still eXist-one on the estate of Sir Douglas Fox, which is called from this circumstance "Coombe Springs"
 and two others on or adjacent to the es-
 tate of Middleton Campbell By means of a number of underground carriers, or feeders the water was conveyed from the springs to these conduit houses,
 whence it flowed in separate pipes to
 point not far from Norbiton station,
 where junction was effected. From
 this point the water was taken direct to
 the palace through a lead pipe two and
 a quarter inches in diameter, which ran,
 at depth varying from three to six
 feet in front of what Is now St. Peters
 vcarage, across the Cambridge road,
 and in straight line to the Fairfield,
 which it crossed, proceeding thence
 through Woodbine Park to the river.
 Here considerable dip was necessary
 to take the pipe under the Thames af
 ter which 1t was an easy matter to lay it through the Home Park to the palace.
 The water from Coombe formed the sole domestic supply for Hampton
 Court Palace for nearly three hundred and fifty years, and was only discarded about thirty years ago.
 There were two circumstances which chiefly influenced the authorities in abandoning the Coombe supply. The increase of building on Kingston Hill had the effect of Dolluting some of the sources of the supply, and-it was antic- ipated that, with considerable addi- ton to the number of houses in the fu- ture, there would be further pollution. Another difficulty was that the barges which came up to Kingston, when they dropped anchor in the Thames, used frequently to grapple and damage the lead pipe, which led to the occasional failure of the supply Consequently new supply of drinking water for the palace was obtained from a branch of the River Coine. formerly known as the Cardinals river, but now known as the Queens river. The intake is at Hamp ton, where the water undergoes filtra- tion, and is thence pumped to the pal ace.
 By order of the commissioners of works the old lead pipes between Coombe and Hampton Court Palace, which have been buried ever since the year 1920, have recently been taken up. It says much for the honest workman ship of our ancestors that these pipes were found to be in perfect condition and very few of them had any trace of wear and tear. They included some of enormous length, as much as two hun dred feet being found without a joint These old pipes are of great value, be- cause they were made at time when the methods of extracting the silver from the lead had not been discovered, | ami the substantial nature of the pipe may be gauged from the fact that they average about eleven pounds to the foot lineal Owing to the great develop nent of building on the route of the 1 pipes it has been, of course, impossible | to recover the whole length that passes through Kingston, as a good deal of it | is covered with bricks and mortar: but | the undertaking has proved decidedly | profitable one for the commissioners of l works, who will be some hundreds of | pounds in pocket by it. Incidentally. | 1t may be mentioned that the old red | brick plug house, which for so many | years was an eyesore to people cross | ng the footbridge from Grange Road to | Denmark Road, has now been demol- (England) Comet.