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Elan Valley and its Pipeline into Birmingham.

Pedrocut said:
A lovely example of how modern technology can be used to bring to life our industrial heritage. I just hope that, while acknowledging a great feat of engineering, it is remembered that it was designed by great engineers but actually built by the blood, sweat and tears of working class people.
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Well most certinaly from my prosective, the distinctive and outstanding features of the Elan Valley dams and associated infrastructures are the notable high levels of craftmanship throughout the scheme. I understand that most of it was built by the Birmingham Direct Labour organisation.
 
A while ago I acquired, via Oxfam, a large number of engineering drawings of civil works. among them are several from T & C Hawkesley. I beleive these were the engineers employed to construct the pipeline, though cannot seem to find that written down. Most are rather large and difficult to copy. Have managed to photograph one smaller map of the pipeline, though detail is rather unclear on magnification. Also attach front cover with Hawkesley's stamp. Google does show them as being engineers on other schemes

cover of map of Elan valley scheme 1892.jpgmap of Elan valley scheme 1892.jpg
 
colin tomlinson said:
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.
View attachment 84422
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Are you still interested in the Caretakers cottages? I too have noticed the same red brick design in cottages by valves and river crossings in Ludlow, Monaughty and Knighton. One in Knighton is still occupied by a retired Severn Trent employee although I am assuming many have now been sold as the occupants have passed away. I am an artist working on a project 'Walking the Pipe' all about aqueduct - http://kate-green.co.uk/ and also more information in the file attached. It would be great to hear if you found out any more information. Kate
 

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In 1999/2000 over the winter period, my wife & I along with some friends did the Elan Valley Way walk, starting from Scotland Lane, Frankley. One of the finest distance walks that you can do. It crosses Frankley Beaches, Clent Hills, then via Hagley, Bewdley, Cleobury Mortimer, Ludlow, Leintwardine, Knighton, Bleddfa, Crossgates, Rhayader, with a final loop around the reservoir's to finish at the visitor centre. The walk was over 128.5 miles, with the pipeline some 73.5 miles, but you are never more than 3 miles from the line & you get to see some of the more obvious signs of the pipeline as well as some of the most wonderful countryside. This walk was devised by David Milton in 1998 & is highly recommended.
 
Thank you for sharing this! I was in the Elan Valley today and Frankley yesterday. You are the second person to get in touch who has followed David Milton's route. I would love to hear more about your experiences. Do you have any photographs? Would you like to contribute/join any of the walks/events that are happening this year? I have spoken to David Milton about my project, but not in the past couple of months. I am looking forward to telling him that people have enjoyed following his route! Please do follow the progress of Walking the Pipe at http://kate-green.co.uk/
 
Hi. A long shot I know but does anyone know David Milton, or his family? As he retired in 1997, he may no longer be with us.

Many thanks
 
CultHeritage@ElanValley said:
Hi. A long shot I know but does anyone know David Milton, or his family? As he retired in 1997, he may no longer be with us.

Many thanks
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I have spoken to David on the phone a few times in the past couple of years and he agreed to be an adviser on my current project http://kate-green.co.uk/the-pipe-chronicle/4594607516
However, I have not been able to make contact with him since earlier this year. I would be grateful if you could let me know if he is well. Kate
 
Kate Green said:
I have spoken to David on the phone a few times in the past couple of years and he agreed to be an adviser on my current project http://kate-green.co.uk/the-pipe-chronicle/4594607516
However, I have not been able to make contact with him since earlier this year. I would be grateful if you could let me know if he is well. Kate
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Thanks Kate. I just wondered whether we could get him down to the valley for when the LAPS boys rock up later this month (btw it's Stephanie from Elan Links here - hope all is good :) ) Will let you know if anything happens.

Cheers
 
Hi Steph! I have both his landline and mobile but no reply for a while. It may be of course that he doesn't want to speak to me! - it has been known! Emails bounce back too and no response to a letter. Gosh, I sound like a stalker? David, if you're reading this, I'm not - I just want to talk to you about Walking the Pipe! I will tell David about the 23rd if I do get hold of him. K
 
The Grandfather of my wife was one of those who worked on the installation, he was one of those many who helped dig the trenches for the pipes from Elan Valley into Birmingham.
 
I think the contractor for the reservoirs at Frankley was Robert Mcalpine (Concrete Bob). To get the materials to the site a spur railway line was built from the branch line which ran from Halesowen to Longbridge somewhere near the Hunnington viaduct (Near Bluebird toffees - remember them).
I have seen a photo in a book of some of the waggons on this spur.
 
I used to go fly fishing with my dad at the Elan Valley in the 1960's, The stonework on the Claerwen dam still looked brand new back then. I remember on the way we would look out for a farmhouse where you could see a short length of the huge pipe as it appeared above ground for a short section right behind the house
It's incredible that it went all the way to Birmingham by gravity although in reality it was pushed by the sheer weight of water from the dam
 
The Elan Valley reservoir and the 73 mile long aqueduct which connected it to the City were, potentially, extremely important targets for enemy sabotage during WW2 and were therefore guarded throughout. Much of the burden for providing this protection fell to employees of the Water Department who were members of of "C" Company, 29th Warwickshire (Birmingham) Battalion (the latter unit formed to protect all of the City's utilities - gas, electricity, water etc.)

The 1945 story of these Water Dept. men who performed their duties both within Birmingham and also a long way to the west is contained within a commemorative booklet and can be read online in its entirety in the staffshomeguard website, here:

Chris
 
When our children were younger [about 25 yrs ago!] a favourite outing was to the Wyre Forest and through the Hawkbatch Valley and on to Seckley Wood and the viewing platform looking out over the river. The path crossed the Elan Valley pipeline at which there were three platforms with large metal access covers in them. Very impressive and the children loved running from one to another and playing hide & seek. A good place for a snack! The buried pipeline came up the hill in a grassy ride from the river. Happy memories.
 

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Here are some more pics.
 

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There is a section in the latest "Abandoned Engineering" series on the Today channel on the Elan Valley, showing old lead mine buildings, pillboxes built in WW2 and the remains of a small dam there which was used by Barnes Wallace in WW2 to test his theories for the later attack on the German dams
 
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