Bristol Water turns 180 years old today, to mark the occasion here are 18 fun facts in honour of the UK’s oldest public water supplier.
1. Bristol Waterworks was established through an Act of Parliament passed on 16 July 1846, 180 years ago today.
2. Before Bristol Water came along, the average life expectancy in Bristol was 29 years old and the beer was better for you than drinking water. One of Bristol Water’s founders, Sir John Kerle Haberfield, supported the organisation in hopes to reduce cases of drunkenness in his role as Magistrate.
3. The original employee uniforms were brown coats, brown waistcoats, shiny leggings, top hats and a scarlet collar.
4. Another founder was Dr William Budd, he was the first person to identify that cholera was caused by an organism in polluted water present in drinking water wells before Bristol Water came along. There is a plaque celebrating him on Park Street, as well as the William Budd Health Centre in Knowle West.
5. William Budd overruled the creator of the Clifton Suspension Bridge to provide the city’s water supply, as William’s intentions were to supply for everyone rather than the wealthy few.
6. Francis Fry, who invented both the chocolate bar and the Easter egg, was also a founder of Bristol Water.
7. When Bristol Water was founded, water pipes were made out of hollowed out Elm tree trunks.
8. The Bristol Waterworks Act allowed a reservoir to be built at Litton. The 11 mile long aqueduct that carried spring water from the Mendips to Barrow Gurney and onwards to Bristol is still part of the water supply system today 180 years later.
9. Blagdon Reservoir was completed in 1901 and two of the original beam engines in the pumping station are still preserved.
10. Cheddar Reservoir was completed in the 1930s. During the Second World War tree trunks were laid across the reservoir to prevent aircrafts from landing on the area if there was an invasion.
11. Chew Valley Lake is 70 years old this year, it was opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth on 17 April 1956. One of the people who helped build the reservoir was the jazz musician Acker Bilk, who went on to have a massive hit in 1961 with ‘Stranger on the Shore’.
12. Chew Valley Lake is a top quality trout and pike fishery, as well as being an important bird habitat. However, the first fish that was caught was a stickleback by the Bristol Waterworks Chairman, Foster Robinson.
13. 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.
14. In 1959 Bristol Water introduced the first ever robot into the water industry which could automatically start and stop Alderley pumping station.
15. In 1962 it was so cold that there were 34 days with sub-zero temperatures, the Bristol Harbour froze over and residents in Clifton had no water supply for six weeks. The Lord Mayor held a civic reception for the Bristol Water staff to recognise their efforts in such extreme weather.
16. Tiny Drop the Water Chap, was a character used in advertising Bristol Water to its customers in 1947. More recently, the Aardman-designed Peter the Meter was used to promote water metering.
17. In 2015 Bristol Water worked with local campaign group, City to Sea, to start a Refill campaign. Aiming to eliminate the use of single-use plastics by promoting water refills – a trend that went global.
18. Apart from Bristol Water becoming the first modern water supply company, other things that happened 180 years ago include the invention of the saxophone, the sewing machine and Texas.
Richard Stanbrook, Bristol Water’s General Manager of Drinking Water Services, said : “We are delighted to celebrate 180 years of Bristol Water today, and to use the occasion as an opportunity to raise awareness about its substantial history as the UK’s oldest public water supplier. These fun facts highlight the incredible progress made since its establishment and we look forward to seeing what the next 180 years bring.”
