Waterworks for the supply of cities and towns : with a description of the principal geological formations of England as influencing supplies of water / by Samuel Hughes.

Hughes, Samuel

Date:: 1870

Credit: Waterworks for the supply of cities and towns : with a description of the principal geological formations of England as influencing supplies of water / by Samuel Hughes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

40/388 (page 26)

$The whole area of England, according to the last census, is 50,782 square miles, and that of England and Wales 58,320. CHALK BASIN OF LONDON. The hydrographical conditions connected with the great chalk basin of London formed a frequent subject of discussion at the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1842. The Rev. W. Clutterbuck, a geologist of some eminence, residing at Wat- ford, took up the case of the millowners in opposition to Mr. Stephenson's project of conveying spring water from Watford to London. In one of his papers Mr. Clutterbuck describes the line of country through which the river Colne flows. Part of this district, he observes, is covered with gravel through which the rain water percolates and finds its way into the chalk, where it accumulates until it rises and finds vent by the small streams of the Ver, the Gade, the Bulbourn, and the Chess, which are tributaries of the river Colne. Another por- tion of the Colne Basin is covered by the London and plastic clays, on the surface of which the rain flows in open channels into the Colne, rendering it subject to sudden floods. In the upper or chalk portion of the district, says ]\Ir. Clutter- buck, a periodical exhaustion and replenishment of the sub- terranean reservoir are continually going on. This he has traced through a series of wells, and found to be exactly in proportion to the distance from the river or vent. Mr. Clut- terbuck first drew attention to the efl'ect of pumping from the deep London wells sunk into the chalk. He stated that the efl'ect of pumping during the week was to reduce the level of the water to the extent of 5 inches, and that the original level was resumed on Monday morning, owing to the cessation of pumping during Sunday. The alternations of level are some- what varied by heavy falls of rain, or by extraordinary cessa- tions of pumping; but Mr. Clutterbuck assumes, as a general rule, that the relative heights of water in the wells at some distance from London pointed out and corresponded with the metropolitan holidays.$