LONDON’S NEW RESERVOIR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 22 July 1925, Page 8

LONDON’S NEW RESERVOIR.

CIRCUMFERENCE OF FOUR MILES. After ten years’ work London s new reservoir was opened on J une 13 bv King George. It is one of the biggest engineering feats ever carried out. The inlet beneath the neiv bridge marks the power of the Thames, for here is the beginning of the intake channel which goes to the great pumping station, about three-quarters of a mile away, allowing millions of gallons artificial!v made reservoir in the world. 11l the" making of this mighty hole strange things have happened. The River Ash wa s in the way; it had to be removed, and cleverly diverted, it now takes a new course. Cottages which, had weathered storms for hundreds of years wore torn down. Init their old carving is preserved What was once the village of Littleton no longer, exists, all that is left is the church, there is no. post office, no inn. „ , . It may be a year before tho work is finished. The concrete lining lias vet to be completed, but already the sides arc partly lined and in places topped with a curly rim which is so designed that on stormy days the tili hident water will be thrown back into the reservoir as it beats against Tlie edge. , It is four miles round the rim. Superintending work-in-progress inspectors have often walked three times a dav round the reservoir, where, at times, more than 2000 men have been engaged in the task of prepaimg London’s new source of water supply. During the war work was interrupted Sleeper s from the railway line which ran round the excavations were recognised bv som e of the employees of the Metropolitan Water Board near Albert, France,' during the Great Mar. Its war service finished, the railway wns returned to perform its original dutv at Littleton. ! The pumping station is a, place of dramatic power, and to the uninitiated, of dramatic mystery. The engines are steam driven.' The hungry furnaeps Will be fed daily by fifty tons of coal. livery pint of water that so passes is automatically registered so. that at anv moment the quantity flowing into the reservoir may be known to the officials, not only at Littleton, but in London. The centrifugal 'pumps are giants of their kind; the pipes through which ’they will deliver the water are five feet in diameter, while the area covered by, the reservior is 800 acres.