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Elan Valley and its Pipeline into Birmingham.

C

colin tomlinson

knowlegable brummie
In have been collecting information for a while about the Elan Valley and its Pipeline. Has anybody any information about its planing, building, upkeep and caretakers houses. I have aquired infrormation from the net but if anyone has a little piece of the jigsaw I would be greatful.
Regards
Colin
 
As children in Brum we were told that our water came from the Elan Valley in Wales. I don't recall being told anymore than that and
only learned more about it when Peter Walker wrote his historical outline on the Forum which was added to by other members.
I remember the water as a child being great to drink and we did drink a lot of it especially in the summer when we would take bottles of it
out for our various day long adventures. I remember putting a couple of bottles in the stream at Pype Hayes Park (Plantsbrook) to keep cool.
I found a bit more about the Elan Valley dams here from the Clwyd-Powys Archeological Trust site : https://www.cpat.org.uk/projects/longer/histland/elan/evrese.htm
 
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Are you aware of the 'Unfinished Dam'?
https://history.powys.org.uk/history/rhayader/unfinished.html
The story I was told was that as technology advanced, and the building of the mighty Claerwen Dam became feasible, then this, and the plans for two other Dams above, were abandoned.

On a visit, some years ago, to Bartley Green, I posed the question, "If someone turns off the tap, how long does the water in the pipe keep flowing?" Answer, "Two days."

Although not specifically mentioned, but sort of as 'alluded to' was that 'country folk' living along the line of the Pipe were encouraged to walk short sections to check for damage or 'other interferences'. A sort of, "If you are taking your dog for a walk, why not walk such a way, rather than any other." I'm not sure if such persons are paid or receive some sort of allowance, but it seems inherently sensible.
 

I have asmall client base and back in 2005 I visited a client in Hagley and I lookedacross his land and there was a circular brick access vent and I asked what itwas for he said “the Elan Valley aqueduct/pipeline runs under our land”.

I have thoughtlittle about this experience until on the 14/1/13 another client named K, toldme that he was interested in the Elan Valley project to supply water toBirmingham and in particular the aqueduct that ran through Hagley. I said “Iwill try and find something out for you as it is my experience that you canfind anything out if you are in my trade”.

I knew that a wife of one of my customersnamed P, who lived in Hagley was in a History Society so I thought that thiswould be a good place to start. Two days later P, rang me and made anappointment for the 22/1/13 and while he was on the phone I asked if his wifeknew anything about the aqueduct. He said “I had a relative that worked on thedam as a stone mason and that he said that he had been paid well and that hehad to cut the large blocks of stone to within a quarter of an inch tolerance”.I spoke to his wife and she said that they had researched an article on the aqueductand that it was on the History Society web site and she gave me the webaddress. I passed the web address onto K, and we both spent three quarters ofan hour looking for the article but neither of us could find it. Theappointment to see P on the 22/1/13 duly came round. I was telling the client beforeP who also lived in Hagley the story of the aqueduct and that the next client’swife had some information for me (I hoped). He said “a friend’s son was awitness in the trial of the students that had blown up the aqueduct. The sonwas coming home from school when two men asked him where the pipeline was”. Hecontinued “sometime later the family were in bed and we were awoken by anenormous explosion at one thirty in the morning. I sat up in bed and I knewexactly what it was”. He told me that he got everyone out of bed and dressedand they all went to the pipeline. He said “we arrived a little after two am tosee a gaping hole in one of the pipes crossing the railway line and there waswater coming out of it under great pressure. The railway line was in a deepcutting and it was full to the top with water in both directions”. He said “itwas two students from a university that had done the deed and they belonged tothe Welsh Nationalist Party.

I then wentto see P and his wife and I told them that I and K had been on the History sitefor three quarters of an hour each and neither of us had found the article andhis wife said “perhaps it is not on there”. She left the room and returned witha photocopy from the Stourbridge Chronical newspaper dated 1965. And she gaveme a photocopy containing two photographs. I posted it in K’s letterbox and Ireceived a phone call sometime later thanking me and I told him what I hadlearned.

On the8/2/2013 I went to see another client of mine named M who had worked for a communicationscompany and I told him the story. He told me that he was responsible forconnecting all the red brick caretaker cottages along the local aqueduct andhad visited all of them. His area covered Ludlow, Cleobury Mortimer, Bewdley, Wolverley, Cookley, Hagley and Frankley. He told methe location of a couple of the cottages and that they were all built to thesame design and he even showed me one of them on Google Maps. The cottage was setback off the road on the A491 on the Hagley side of the Prince of Wales pub. Wecould follow its path up to the Hagley monument and across Wassell Grove and hesaid that there were some inspection points also in that area. The aqueductthen runs under the A456 on the Stourbridge side of the Badgers Set Pub. Youcan see its onward path as there is a swath cut through a wood on the Clentside of the A456. He did a computer search and it showed all of the mapreferences for our area. He did another search and came up with the fact thatthere had been two attempts at blowing up the aqueduct one of them was in Walesand the second was in Hagley.

A furthersearch on a different website showed that there had been an upgrade to the aqueductin 1957 from the 2 pipes that needed replacing to two new pipes that had a 60inch diameter.

I went tosee another client on 11/2/2013 and he told me that he had attended a talk by alady who had worked for the water company concerned with supplying Birminghamwho had written a book on this subject.

Thesynchronicity of this has been overwhelming in a short space of timeconsidering that I have known these people for up to 30 years and this subjecthas never come up before. It has awakened in me a thirst to know more and toshare that knowledge. I see the possibilities of this forum for achieving thisnew dream. From a member of the forum I have already received valuable informationabout the legalities of establishing the aqueduct dating from the 1890’s. I amwondering what else is out there.

I am in theprocess of obtaining a copy of the Stourbridge Chronicle article and will postit on this thread as soon as I can. I will also try to find out the name of thebook that one of my clients told me about.

The links tothe website pages for the route of the aqueduct are here.

[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elan_aqueduct#RouteScroll"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elan_aqueduct#Route
Scroll[/URL] downto External links
Click on User generated map of the Route onGoogle maps.

A caretakers cottage at Hagley, they were all built to the same design. The blue line is the sunken aqueduct.
Elan Valley caretakers cottage.jpg

 
Here are two more caretakers cottage for the Elan Aqueduct the first one is Ludlow.
The second one is Cleobury Mortimer. They were all built to the same design. Ludlow final.jpgCleobury Mortimer.jpg
 
What a fascinating piece of history Colin. I had no idea about the pipeline being blown up although I know the Welsh Nationalists were totally against the Dams and water supply. Also would be nice to see a caretakers cottage.

Bob your piece of information about the dam is also news I didn't know. I will have to take a visit in the summer.

Thanks to you both.
 
How I wished I had paid attention in Science, our Teacher at Tinkers Farm School, Northfield, Mr Slim, was very keen on this subject. Around the wall of the lab. was an intricate model from Elan Valley to Frankley Reservoir, not far from the school. The wall plan, which from memory covered most of three walls, showed every hill & valley in some detail.

Now that the school is demolished I wonder what happened to it?

Clarkie
 
Hi Colin: I wonder if the caretakers cottages along the Elan Valley pipeline were occupied by workers who looked after the Syphon Houses located at different
places along the 70+ mile route to regulate the water flow.
 
jennyann said:
Hi Colin: I wonder if the caretakers cottages along the Elan Valley pipeline were occupied by workers who looked after the Syphon Houses located at different
places along the 70+ mile route to regulate the water flow.
Click to expand...

Yes, Jennyann, I recall from memory you are correct. There are a number of automatic valves every few miles that shut off if there is a breach in the pipes.
There are also valves at the bottom of the siphons, they can flush out any debris that settle there every so often.
I think a team of inspectors also walk the entire length of the Elan aqueduct one or twice a year.

There is a map of the route here;https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=114277856923623673198.00046ed14e0c824e03ea3

Quite a few photos of various part of the aqueduct here;https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=39758336
 
Hi Sylvia: I haven't seen the model of the Elan Valley Pipeline layout at Cannon Hill but will have a look when I visit next. Thanks for the links
Moturn. Some of the Syphon Houses on the route are very nice buildings. There is so much information on the whole subject on line and would take a long time to read. PDF files with every single detail imaginable about the project going back to the early planning stages. Birmingham Water Corporation didn't have political problems in attaining the required land. There was a compulsory purchase order made through an act of Parliament. Not everyone was in agreement, however. This link has a story
regarding the project and people who were displaced. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Lost...ears+since+the+Elan+valley+was...-a0121215117
 
Jenny, the model is an outdoor feature and although no water was running through for quite a long time, the last time we went a couple of years ago I'm sure it was in full working order.
 
Looking at the link in #4 after reading about the Dams, had an interesting read about the earlier 'Rebecca Riots' in the area.
Thanks
 
Very interested in the caretakers cottages have found one at Ludlow. Never heard of this before but it makes sense that the people who supposedly walked the route of the acqueduct everyday were given accommodation along the route. Re the terroist activity, the only photographs I have found were front page of the County Express December 6th 1968. Unfortunately copies of these photographas are now not available. Perhaps there are people out there who took their own photographs and recorded the works that went on to re-direct the acqueduct under the railway. I would be pleased to see anything along this subject.
 
Greetings Georgeedward, you are of coarse right when you say that the terroist activity was reported in the County Express December 6th 1968 and not as I had written previously the Stourbridge Chronical.
 
There is a wonderful book called THE BUILDING OF THE ELAN VALLEY DAMS. It was written by Rita Morten and she worked for the water board. Her job at the water board was coming to an end and one day two skips arrived and she asked what they were for and they were for? She was told that they were for contents of the office which consisted of all the correspondence, maps, surveys, drawings in fact all of the achieve material that existed. Rita asked if she could have some of the material and she managed to fill her car boot. She now goes around giving talks about the Elan valley dams.
 
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