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Friday 28 November 2008

Alphabet Friday - Waterworks


"W" is for "Waterworks" and this building on Henrietta Street was once the offices of Ashton's water supply company. The stone on the roof parapet above the door bears the words: "Ashton under Lyne Waterworks AD 1838".

The Ordnance Survey map of 1848, just 10 years after this building was constructed, shows that there was a small circular storage reservoir just behind the building. This site was presumably chosen as it is on the top of the closest hill to the town. The storage reservoir was fed from Knott Hill Reservoir, which was built at Hazelhurst around this time. Ashton under Lyne Waterworks Company had been formed in 1825 and in 1856 was taken over by Ashton Corporation.

The 1848 map shows that Henrietta Street finished just a few yards to the left of this building, with the open land of Lees Fields beyond. The waterworks were literally on the very edge of the town at that time.

See Google Aerial View of this location.
See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

5 comments:

  1. When I was a girl (late 1950's)there was a stream that ran down through the golf course (now the 18th Fairway estate) where it opened up into several small ponds that were home to newts, frogs and all kinds of other interesting creatures, across the field where St Christophers School was built later, under Lees Road (the "ditch" which often smelt stagnant in the summertime) along through the fields behind Smallshaw Lane (where at one point it has been dammed to form a large fishing pond known as the "fleapit"), under Ladbrooke Road and down the side of the path running through St Georges playing fields - which were Lees Fields. The stream dissapeared down a drain halfway through the park. I wonder if this stream, which is now mostly piped away underground, fed that reservoir behind the Waterworks building?

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  2. The pond on Smallshaw lane was called the "Bricky" by me and friends.Old map shows a brick works around there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was impressed by the early date for piping water to the town. Was it common to have a water supply by such an early date? I assume that people had to collect their water from a pump- it wouldn't have come out of a tap in their houses?

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Hilda,

    Pumunta ka dito sa OL6 7HJ makikita ang lahat ny bahay pag pinili mo ang birds eye view.

    maps.live.com

    ReplyDelete

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