118 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF BLACKPOOL AND DISTRICT 



XVIII. 



WATER SUPPLY 



BY 



JOHN HALL, 

 Clerk and Solicitor to the Fylde Water Board. 



BLACKPOOL is in the happy position of having an ample supply of water of 

 excellent quality and high chemical and bacteriological purity. 



The water supply only dates back to 1 864. It was commenced by a private 

 company known as the Fylde Waterworks Company. The undertaking was 

 afterwards purchased by the present water authority, the Fylde Water Board, 

 specially incorporated for the purpose, the headquarters being in Blackpool. 



The Fylde Water Board was constituted by Act of Parliament in 1 897, and 

 comprises representatives appointed by the County Borough of Blackpool, 

 the Boroughs of Lytham St. Annes and Fleetwood, the Urban District Councils 

 of Thornton Cleveleys, Poulton, Kirkham and Preesall and the Rural District 

 Councils of Fylde and Garstang. Blackpool has 10 representatives, Lytham 

 St. Annes five, Fleetwood three, and the District Councils one each. 



The original sources of supply (the Calder and Grizedale Watersheds) 

 are situated on the western foothills of the Pennine Chain about five miles 

 north-east of Garstang. The area of these watersheds is 3,083 acres. They 

 consist of a wide expanse of moor on the millstone grits. The average rainfall 

 is 47 inches. The Calder and Grizedale streams are tributaries of the River 

 Wyre, and the water is impounded in reservoirs at Barnacre. 



The Board's water supply area covers an area of over 207 square miles. It 

 is bounded on the south by the River Ribble, on the east by the foothills of the 

 Pennine Chain, and on the north and west by the sea. 



The Board are, however, under statutory obligation to provide bulk supplies 

 for a further area of 1 1 2 square miles. These two areas amount to about 

 one-sixth of the area of the County of Lancashire. 



Applications for supplies rapidly came forward from the inception of a water 

 supply system in the district, and the Company never succeeded in overtaking 

 the enormous demands made upon them. The Fylde Water Board acquired 

 the undertaking in 1899, and until recent years they have had a continual 

 struggle to meet the ever-increasing demands of the rapidly-growing population. 

 The aggregate capacity of the reservoirs taken over by the Board at the transfer 

 of the undertaking was 220 million gallons. Foreseeing the need for additional 

 storage accommodation, the Board, in 1903, commenced the construction of a 

 new reservoir at Barnacre (Grizedale Lea) with a capacity of 284 million 

 gallons. 



Unfortunately, the construction of this reservoir occupied a long number of 

 years owing to many difficulties of a geological and engineering nature, and 



