[Report 1884] / Medical Officer of Health, Newcastle-upon-Tyne City & County.

  • Newcastle upon Tyne (England). City & County Council.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1884] / Medical Officer of Health, Newcastle-upon-Tyne City & County. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    with clriulving water, whilst “water for their general wants was got from the Tyne. There are records, however, shewing that, about 1600, there were several public pants in various parts of the Town. In 1647, one of these pants was “cut oif” by order of the Common Council, as being unfit for use. In 1671, there was great scarcity, and the supply was curtailed by the Council. This was owing, in part, to the increase of population, and partly to the failure of some of the springs, which had been drained by colliery workings. In 1693, CuTHBERT Dykes proposed to supply the Town with water by pumping from the Tyne, at Saudgate, and tliis scheme was actually carried out, though the wmrks were designated by the Towus-people as “ The Folly ; ” and, no doubt, only great need of water would make them accept it from such a source, contaminated as it was, with sewage. The next scheme was by William Yarnold, an attorney, of New Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, who appeared before the Mayor, and proposed means for supplying the Town with “ good and wholesome water,” which were so far satisfactory . to the authorities, that they granted him a lease for 3d0 years of “ all waste grounds without the walls, but within the liberties of the Town,” including powers for the erection of cisterns, works, &c., and for breaking up the streets to lay down his pipes. He w^as restricted to thirty taps for.ptiyate houses, so that the system seems to have been one foKpublie * supply by pants in the streets. He was not to get any^.part, - of his supply from the Tyne, nor was he to interfere ^with any of the springs on the Town Moor or Castle Leazes,Vnor • with those that supplied the works of Cuthbert Dykes, in. Saudgate, or Mr. Ellison, in Pandon, or any of the existing ])ants in the Town. From this, it would seem that Dykes’s “Folly” though nominally deriving its supply from t^ Tyne, really did so from streams or springs running into it, possibly from the lower part of the Pandon Burn. The Council was also to have power to break into the pipes to ® get water in case of fires. Yarnold, having agreed with the Council, proceeded to get an Act of Parliament in 1698-9, entitled ; “An Act fov better supplying the Town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne with Water.” This Act was granted in a liberal spirit, and gave him ample powers, while protecting him against extortionate claims for compensation. He at once commenced work near Coxlodge, about four miles north of Newcastle, adopting a