A WATER SUPPLY FOR NORTHAMPTON
The Little Conduit which can be seen in front of All Saints to the left of the picture
Image © Art UK, original held by Northampton Library
Whilst I can work out (more or less) where my ancestors lived, I’ve often wondered how they lived, where they got their provisions and such, and just as importantly, where did they get their water from? Northamptonshire Archives has a fascinating document which details the history of the water supply to the town of Northampton. It was written c.1942 by one of the chief water engineers involved with the supply reservoirs to the north of the town. (NRO document re ZB50/2).
There was a stone built into the wall of the old engine house at Billing Road Works, Cliftonville, Northampton inscribed, “Conduit Head made 1478, repaired 1542, pipes laid open 1716, new pipes 1784, rebuilt 1811 by Corporation”.
The Conduit Head was a spring which fed into a large chamber and sited in a field on the present St Andrew’s Hospital site on Billing Road. It appears on Speed’s map of the town in 1610. From there water was conveyed to the Great Conduit building on the Market Square. The Borough records state that a guild-room was built over it in 1460 so it originates from before that date. There is no record as to how the water was conveyed from the Head to the Great Conduit but it could possibly have been by open ditch. Some time after, wooden pipes were being used, being abutted up to each other and a band of clay put round the joints. Certainly in 1542 it is recorded that the pipes were “relaid”.
There was also a much older building at the south west corner of All Saints church known as Little Conduit and was undoubtedly a public ‘dipping well’ prior to 1479. Later pipes were laid from Great Conduit to Little Conduit. Both were carefully looked after, for amongst the earliest Borough appointments were those of two conduit masters and two key bearers of the conduit. In 1571 a pump was erected on the Market Square and in August 1608, the first record of an intermittent supply was given, the conduits being closed from 7pm to 6am and from 10am to 2pm and “everyone had to quietly wait their turn”.
About 1630 there were frequent occasions of shortage and the Assembly decided that “owing to continual fetching, carrying and drawing of water from the conduit by innkeepers and victuallers for brewing purposes there was great scarceness”. So certain charges were laid of 2s 6d for each brewing on the innkeepers and 1s per brewing on the alehouse keepers. It was in 1630 too, that the first case of water stealing was recorded, it being agreed that the Chamberlain should cause a pipe grafted into the house lately occupied by Mr Hensman be cut off and destroyed. By 1656 demand was again outstripping supply and a committee looked into bringing in a supply from Kingsthorpe but this was never carried out.
By 1689 the authorities gave powers to Mr Richard Raynsford and others to break up ground in the streets and other places and to open up springs on void ground. After a two year search, Scarletwell was decided upon and land for the site of waterworks was conveyed to Richard Raynsford, Francis Arundell and others for £10. This scheme appears to have been fraught with difficulties and after 12 years, no result, so far as actual water supply went, had been achieved. In 1716 arrangements were made to repair the pipes from Conduit Head whilst in 1717 an expenditure of £160 was authorised to obtain an Act of Parliament for supplying the town with water and preventing any further calamity by fire.
In 1719 Mr William Wykes made an elaborate proposal and scheme which was accepted. It was completed in 1722 and it is possible the site of the works was at Vigo (off the Bedford Road). However either the supply or the scheme failed as, six years later, Conduit Head was so overtaxed that usage again had to be restricted. Isolated wells then became common. Mr Henry Locock (mayor) and subscribers were allowed to sink one at the top of the Drapery and to erect a pump, provided that in case of fire all inhabitants could have free use of the water. Other wells were erected at the top of Bridge Street, in the Drapery, in Mercers Row, All Saints churchyard, near St Giles churchyard and St Michaels Road and no doubt also on private (rather than public) land.
In 1752 the Governors and Trustees of the County Hospital (then in George Row) were allowed at their own expenses to convey water from the Great Conduit to supply a large cistern to be used as a cold bath for the patients. In 1754 the pipes from Conduit Head were re-laid again (probably two inch lead pipes) and Conduit House was rebuilt in 1811.
Conduit Head apparently satisfied until 1830 when the Committee for the erection of a wall and iron rails round All Saints church asked to remove Little Conduit and also the taking away of Great Conduit and substituting one large tank. This was approved in 1831.
In 1836 Mr Thomas Sharp of Waterloo Terrace (Derngate) considered the time was ripe for a Waterworks Company and issued a prospectus for same with the opening line, “It has long been a subject of great regret that the inhabitants of the town should be so inefficiently supplied with that most valuable and necessary article of life – spring water”.
Samples of Northampton water were taken from near the Asylum, from the Racecourse, from Mr Grundy’s parish yard and from the Nene and were examined. The best water came from the Racecourse but it was the spring near the Asylum (Billing Road) that was adjudged sufficient and the best – the overflow of the Conduit Head. In 1838 the Directors found that they were drawing 100,000 gallons a day into the receiving reservoir. Conduit Head sufficed for 9 years then, on the advice of Mr Glynn FRC, a well was sunk at the Billing Road Works in Cliftonville. Another well was sunk in 1866 and the tanks on Wood Hill were replaced by stand pipes in what is now known at Jeyes Jetty and in 1870 a large reservoir was built at Stimpson Avenue off the Wellingborough Road. A steam engine, erected between the Infirmary and Lunatic Asylum on Billing Road, pumped the water to the Reservoir which then supplied the town by means of pipes.
At long last in 1884 an Act provided for the Corporation to purchase and construct the Ravensthorpe Reservoir. In November 1884, Conduit Head was doubted as to purity and this was not surprising since its gathering ground was now the General Cemetery in Billing Road. It had done duty for 400 years. Ravensthorpe took nearly 6 years to complete, water coming from there on 22 May 1890 and with it all temporary supplies were discontinued. Ravensthorpe holds 400 million gallons of usuable water. Further reservoirs at Hollowell (1938) and Pitsford (1956) were later completed and all continue to supply water to the town and other parts of the county.
(AM 22/9/23)