82 LONDON DISTRICT. 



In the City area, the many wells long retained their importance 

 and are used by Stow as landmarks ; the names of Cornhill Pump 

 and Clerkenwell are familiar to all; but this local supply soon 

 became inadequate and the conduit system was introduced in 

 1236. The water from springs situated on the margins of the 

 gravel where the little streams cut through it was conveyed to 

 London by means of elm -wood pipes. The springs first called 

 into service were at Tyburn, on the banks of the stream at what 

 is now Stratford Place, Oxford Street. 1 Later on more water 

 was brought from Paddington in 1471, and in 1535 a conduit was 

 laid from Hackney to Aldgate ; sometimes leaden pipes were 

 substituted for wooden, but a drawing in the Soane Museum 

 shows the latter in use in Clerkenwell about 1800 A.D. 2 



The next means adopted for increasing the supply was the 

 London Bridge Water Works, which lasted from 1582 to 1817 : 

 water wheels, worked by the tides, were fixed under several of 

 the arches of the bridge and pumped water to the top of a tower, 

 whence it was distributed by pipes. In 1613 Sir Hugh Middleton 

 constructed the New River, an open conduit bringing water 

 from Chadwell and Am well springs to New River Head; it is 

 still in use. A somewhat similar enterprise was the Queen's or 

 Cardinal's River, bringing water from the Come to Hampton 

 Court. 



The great Water Companies were founded early in the 

 19th century, and for the most part drew their supplies from the 

 Thames and its tributaries. The Vauxhall Company, founded in 

 1815, utilised first the Effra, but later the Thames : reservoirs 

 were established in many parts, as, for instance, at the north- 

 east corner of the Green Park and in the Sunken Garden in Hyde 

 Park. Now they all lie further out, great areas being occupied, 

 notably at Staines, Molesey and other parts of the Thames Valley 

 and in that of the Lea above Walthamstow. The Metropolitan 

 Water Board, combining many separate companies' undertakings, 

 assumed authority in 1904. 



The earliest deep well known to us was sunk in 1725 near 

 Kilburn ; water was obtained from the sands of the Reading and 

 Woolwich Series at a depth of 300 ft. 



In 1807 John Middleton remarked that deep wells dug into 

 the strata beneath the great mass of clay (London Clay) reach 

 water, ' which then rises in such large quantities as to have 

 hitherto prevented any attempt to dig deeper ; in fact, it 

 seems to bid defiance to being drawn oft by our most powerful 

 hydraulic machines/ He mentioned a well at Chelsea, dug 

 about the year 1793 to the depth of 394 ft. The well-digger 

 then usually bored from 10 to 20 ft. at a time, lower than his 

 work, a precaution justified by the sudden rising of the water 



1 Davies, A. Morley, ' London's First Conduit System,' Trans. London & 

 Middlesex Arch. Soc., N.S. vol. ii, 1907, pp. 9-59. 



2 Reader, F. W., Essex Nat., vol. xiii, 1903, pp. 272-274, 



