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Excavations at the Bath Waterworks, Monkswood. 
By H. H. Winwoop, M.A., F.G.S. 
(Read January 16th, 1895.) 
The works now in progress near Monkswood, at the N.W. end 
of the picturesque valley of St. Catharine, for the construction of 
a reservoir sufficiently large to meet the increasing demands of 
the inhabitants of Bath on the water supply, are of great importance 
in more ways than one. I propose in these notes to touch merely 
upon the geological and antiquarian aspects of the excavations. 
Some of the Members may remember that an excursion was 
made there last October, when the object and progress of the 
works were explained by Mr. Charles Gilby, the assistant- 
engineer under Mr. W. Fox. The general geological features of 
the locality were briefly pointed out at the time by myself, and 
some further details of various “finds” during the progress of 
the work, being of great interest, are worthy of a permanent 
record in our Proceedings. 
The object being to dam up the valley between Fry’s Farm 
and the S.E. end of the present small reservoir, a trench some 
30 feet deep had to be excavated, and filled up entirely with a 
puddled core. 
The width of this dam at the base will be 240 feet, narrowing 
on the top to a few feet. To insure the stability of this dam, 
excavations on either side were necessary, called “toes,” into 
which a vast quantity of stone had to be thrown to bear the 
lateral thrust. 
For this purpose the Great Oolite capping the hill formed a 
very good material, and a tramway was laid down for the trollies 
to convey the stone to the valley below. It was during the 
progress of these excavations, both above and below, that many 
interesting geological features were exposed. The top of the 
plateau is about 644 feet above mean water level (at Liverpool), 
