Waterworks were established in Hyde by Thomas Mottram, the descendent of an old yeoman family of the township, who in 1831, obtained an Act of Parliament "for the better supply of water to the several townships of Hyde, Werneth and Newton," and under the powers of that Act constructed the Gee Cross reservoir, Tinker's reservoir, New reservoir and Arnold Hill reservoir. The first three of these being known as "Queens" (later as Queen Adelaide), "Stonepit" and "Diamond Reservoir". Godley reservoir was constructed later in the 1850's.
In 1891 the supply of water from the Gee Cross reservoirs was declared unfit for domestic consumption owing to contamination, and this water was then used for manufacturing use only. The Arnold Hill reservoir, however was utilised for storing the Manchester Corporation water, and the pumping station was erected in 1893 to force the water into it. Meanwhile Newton had only a private supply, but in 1908 the Corporation decided to erect additional pumping plant, and constructed in Joel Lane the storage reservoirs known as "Hillside" and "Werneth", which were completed in 1911. In 1920 the Corporation acquired from the trustees of C & J Ashton, their Newton water supply, which included the reservoirs known as "Newton House" , "Blue Bell" and "Harbour". The property which these reservoirs supplied was disconnected in 1922, and supplied by town's water. The whole of the property within the borough , except a few isolated farms, was then supplied with town's water. The area between the Clarke's Arms, Stockpot Rd and the Goodiers, Victoria St, Newton, is supplied by gravitation from the Hoviley and Godley sources. Gee Cross and Newton are supplied by water pumped into the Gee Cross storage reservoirs, and then by gravity. The Newton service reservoir was constructed in 1928, and opened on Feb 19th, 1929, by the Mayor, Councillor A. Shaw J.P.
The large reservoir and waterworks of the Manchester Corporation at Tetlow Fold, Godley were constructed in 1850.
The above is from Thomas Middleton's "History of Hyde"
The photo's below show the Queen Adelaide reservoir in Gee Cross undergoing some reconstruction work probably around the early part of the 20th century.
3 comments:
Great article there. Thank you !
On the top photo, where are/were the row of houses? Are they the ones that face Stockport Road?
excellent post and a great insight into how the water was distributed around Hyde compared to the water network in the area today, which was modernised when Godley treatment works was updated in the 1950/60s and since then Newton's water comes directly from Godley to Newton's storage reservoir rather than from Gee Cross. Gee Cross water still comes from storage on Werneth Low from the new Hillside Reservoir filled from Godley, but the Werneth Low and Werneth High storage reservoirs were abandoned in the mid 1990s.
Very interesting photos, and not a machine in sight! Interesting article, too.
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