Go to this location: What3Words ///loose.kick.slows
In the days before fresh water piped directly to our kitchen taps, drinking water was taken from streams, wells, water-pumps or provided by private companies that sold it from barrels taken around the streets in wagons. Such water could be dangerous and unsavoury because it was polluted by factories and human and animal waste that got into the water supply. Given the problems with drinking water it is not surprising that diseases were widespread and that beer drinking was so popular.
The Birmingham Waterworks Company, a private concern set up in 1826 by an act of Parliament, drew water from the River Tame and did provide a constant supply to some parts of the town, although by 1849 this was deemed insufficient and expensive. In1892 an act of Parliament was obtained to provide a supply of water from Rhayader in mid-Wales via the Elan Valley scheme. The Elan Valley Dam was built by hand and opened in 1904 at a cost of £6 million, and within a year the whole of Birmingham had supplies of fresh water. It takes two and half days for the water to reach Frankley Reservoir after it has left the Elan Valley. From Frankley it’s piped around Birmingham into the taps in our kitchens and bathrooms.
This book was written in 1891 to accompany a lecture delivered at the Birmingham and Midland Institute describing the Elan Valley Scheme proposal. The fold out map shows the route of the pipeline from Wales to Birmingham. The land in Wales is higher than Birmingham, and so the water flows naturally downhill all the way, without the need for expensive pumps. The pipe is mostly underground, but where it crosses a valley, huge aqueducts (bridges for water) were built to carry the water from one side to the other.