303 



As enouo-h water had however been procured in the gravel, the 

 Directors of the Company did not press him, but proceeded with 

 the rest of their works, leaving the extension of the collecting 

 conduit in the meadows, if it should be necessary, until the 

 steam pump which was to lift the water for the service of the 

 town, could be also made available for reheving the trenches in 

 the low grounds from water. 



The engine to serve the town is nominally 6 H.P., with 

 8 H.P. boiler, with triple pumps, the whole capable of lifting 

 60,000 galls. 100 feet in the working day. 



The pumps raise the water through a 7-inch pumping main 

 into a cast-iron high service tank placed on the water tower. 

 This tank is 28 feet by 28 feet, and 6 feet 6 inches deep, 

 containing about 30,000 galls. 



The water tower was admirably constructed, principally in 

 the winter of 1864, by Mr. Isaac Gardiner, the mason, of 

 Brimscombe. The foundation for it proved a bad one, the 

 site having formerly been a portion of the burying ground 

 attached to the Abbey and Monastery. Though there were 

 many cavities to fill in with concrete, and much care was 

 necessary to obtain uniformity of bearing, the weight on the 

 foundation being about 1| tons per square foot, not a crack or 

 settlement exists in the building. 



From the tank, mains and service pipes distribute the water 

 to the various streets and houses for sanitary and domestic 

 purposes. The works were brought into operation in May, 1865, 

 when it was found that there was some injurious infiltration 

 at the gravel bed to the collecting conduit. Although it did 

 not appear by chemical analysis that the water was otherwise 

 than suitable for culinary and drinking purposes, still it was 

 occasionally not bright, and contained 0-13 grains per gallon of 

 Carbonate of Iron. One eminent chemist characterized it as a 

 decidedly Chalybeate water, which another entirely denied to 

 be a suitable description of it. The Directors under the cir- 

 cumstances judiciously decided to exclude altogether the gravel 

 bed water, substituting iron for stoneware pipes in that 

 portion of the conduit which passed through the gravel. They 



