SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE
WATERWORKS PAST AND PRESENT
The South Staffs Water Archive holds a
large number of photographs which provide a detailed record of the Company’s
buildings, plant, people, events etc. Although the Company commenced operations
in 1858 not a great deal in the way of photographic records survive from the
first sixty years of its existence. There is indeed documentary evidence from
the 1860s that photographs were used as evidence in parliamentary proceedings.
The only photograph in the archive from this period is of a railway accident in
1859 at Elwells Pool, Wood Green, Wednesbury which includes a view of one of the
Company’s original water mains. The opening ceremony at Hanch Reservoir, near
Lichfield
was recorded on camera in 1880 and there are a few photographs from the first
decade of the 20th Century. This situation changed dramatically in
the years immediately after the First World War. Fred J Dixon was appointed as
Engineer in Chief to the Company in 1917 and he was clearly a keen advocate in
the use of photography to record the construction of the many reservoirs,
pumping stations and water towers etc. which were built during the 27 years he
remained with the Company. The original records from this period are on glass
plate negatives and are deposited at the Walsall Local History Centre in
Essex Street
. However positive paper photographs were produced from the negatives and these
are held in the Green Lane Archive, mainly in bulky albums. Fortunately Fred
Dixon’s successors followed his example and consequently we have detailed
records of most construction projects from 1920 to the present day.
The following pages include a small selection from the archive together
with views taken at the same location in 2010. They are presented in approximate
chronological order based on the date when the structure was created.