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.

Sandfields

1858

 

Ashwood

1885

 

Minster Pool

1858

 

Paradise Street

1886

 

Stowe Pool

1858

 

Hinksford

1900

 

Brownhills Stack

1858

 

Pipe Hill

1905

 

Elwells Pool (Train Accident)

1859

 

Winshill Water Tower

1907

 

Wednesbury Reservoir

1860

 

Cannock Mainlaying

1911

 

Wood Green

1871

 

Shavers End Reservoir

1927

 

Moors Gorse

1878

 

Sheepcote Street

1932

 

Huntington

1878

 

Seedy Mill

1953

 

Scout House Reservoir

1879

 

Blithfield Reservoir

1953

 

Hanch Reservoir

1880

 

Hampton Loade

1966

 

Hopwas

1880

 

Green Lane

1980

 

Tipton Depot

1882

Chris Pattison

December 2010

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