1898.] Mr. J. Mansergh on Bringing Water to Birmingham. 679 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, March 18, 1898. 



Sir Fkederick Bramwell, Bart. D.C.L. LL.D. F.R.S. 

 Hon. Secretary and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



James Mansergh, Esq. V.P. Inst. C.E. F.G.S. M.B.L 



The Bringing of Water to Birmingham from 

 the Welsh Mountains. 



The city of Birmingham has an area of 12,365 acres ; and the 

 parliamentary limits within which the Corporation are bound to 

 supply water extend to 83,221 acres, or 130 square miles — an area 

 10 per cent, in excess of that of the County of London. This district 

 varies considerably in elevation, being 270 feet above sea level in 

 the north-east corner, and rising to 800 feet in the south-west. As 

 compared with this, the highest part of Hampstead Heath, in the 

 north-west of London, is 450 feet. The population within I he limhs 

 at the time of census taking in 1891 was 647,972, and is believed to 

 be now over 700,000. The water is at present obtained from tiye 

 local streams, and from six wells sunk in the New Ked Sandstone 

 which underlies the city and its neighbourhood. 



In 1890 I was called in to investigate the whole question of the 

 future of the water undertaking. My advice to the committee, put 

 shortly, was — 



1. That the water obtainable from the local streams, flowing as 

 they do through populous districts, would go on constantly increasing 

 in impurity, and the greatest care would have to be exercised in order 

 to ensure its safety for domestic use. 



2. That the addition to their resources by any impounding works 

 which could be constructed on these streams, or by sinking more 

 wells, would carry them on for only a comparatively few years, at 

 the end of which time they would inevitably have to go much 

 further afield, and the money they hud spent would be practically 

 lost. 



3. That the distant unpolluted sources, at sufficient elevation to 

 supply Birmingham by gravitation, were comparatively few, and that 

 if their acquisition were delayed even for a few years only, the chances 

 were that they would have been secured by some other community, 

 possibly London. 



This advice was accepted, the result being that a Bill was 

 promoted in Parliament in the Session of 1892, by which the 

 Corporation sought powers to utilise the waters of the rivers Elan 

 and Claerwen flowing from an area of 7 1 square miles in the counties 



2 Y 2 



