Bristol Water – the UK’s oldest public water supplier – is 180 years old.
The Bristol Water Works Company was established through an Act of Parliament on 16 July 1846.
Before its advent, average life expectancy in Bristol was 29 and beer was considered better drinking quality than water.
One of its founders Sir John Kerle Haberfield – who was also a magistrate – supported its set-up in the hope of reducing drunkenness in the town.
Another founder, Dr William Budd, was the first person to identify that cholera was caused by an organism in in polluted water wells.
His expertise in germ theory and sanitation helped overrule a bid by the creators of the Clifton Suspension Bridge to control the local water supply on behalf of the richer suburbs.
The philanthropic core founders of the Bristol Water Works Company helped ensure that everyone – not just the wealthy few – had access to clean safe water.
Its foundation is regarded at as a significant social and engineering achievement at a time when water pipes were made from hollowed-out elm tree trunks, and water was flowing into the city by 1 October 1847.
Key Milestones
- The Litton reservoir supplied spring water from the Mendips to Barrow Gurney and onwards to Bristol via an 11-mile-long aqueduct that is still part of the water supply system today.
- Blagdon Reservoir was completed in 1901; two of the original beam engines in the pumping station have been preserved.
- Cheddar Reservoir was completed in the 1930s, and during WWII tree trunks were laid across it to prevent enemy aircraft from landing if there was an invasion.
- Chew Valley Lake, which is 70 this year, was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on 17 April 1956. One of the people who helped build the reservoir was jazz musician Acker Bilk, who had a massive hit in 1961 with ‘Stranger on the Shore’.
- Bristol Water grew fast in the 1950s and 1960s through mergers with 19 other waterworks, including the Weston-Super-Mare, Shepton Mallet, Portishead and West Gloucestershire Water Companies.
- In 1959, the company introduced the industry’s first ever robot to automatically start and stop Alderley pumping station.
- The winter of 1961-1962 was so cold, with 34 days of sub-zero temperatures, that Blagdon Reservoir and Chew Valley Lake froze over. Burst and leak rates hit record levels and residents in Clifton had no water supply for six weeks.
- The Great Freeze of 1963 also saw the company’s emergency responses put to the test.
- A Royal Ascent of the Water Act that year formally set out requirements to protect, conserve and manage water resources.
- In 2015 Bristol Water worked with local campaign group, City to Sea, on the Refill campaign, backing end of single-use plastics by promoting water refills – a trend that went global.
Richard Stanbrook, Bristol Water’s General Manager of Drinking Water Services, said: “We are delighted to celebrate 180 years of Bristol Water, and to use the occasion as an opportunity to raise awareness about its substantial history as the UK’s oldest public water supplier.
“We look forward to seeing what the next 180 years bring.”
Read more about Bristol Water’s long and illustrious history.
