Introduction – The Miracle of Water

The recent heat waves, here in the UK and across Europe, and the drought in southern England, have got me thinking about how deeply I appreciate our water sources and the continuing miracle of having water on tap. 

Here, in the Penwortham and Preston area, we’ve had piped water for around two centuries. And it has come at the great cost of our natural water sources being drained, ruptured, subverted, closed off, drying up. 

The Wells and Springs of Penwortham and Preston

There were once numerous wells and springs in Penwortham and Preston. On Castle Hill, Penwortham, St Mary’s Well and St Anne’s Well. In Preston, Lady Well, Spa Well (on Spring Row, near Spar Bath where springs were abundant), Main Sprit Weind Well, Ashton Quays Well, and the Dolphin Fountain.

Their abundance has its basis in our underlying geology. Deep beneath is a primary aquifer composed of Permian and Triassic sandstone which is nationally recognised as a high-quality drinking water source. Above, flanking the river Ribble and its tributaries, are secondary aquifers formed from bedrock blanketed by river alluvium and glacial meltwater sand and gravel. These provide pockets of groundwater and interact with river base flows. Contrastingly, the surrounding soil is clay, and acts as an aquitard.

The spring and well waters of Penwortham and Preston flowed from secondary aquifers. St Mary’s Well, which was renowned for its clear pure water as a holy well with healing qualities, ran dry after the aquifer was shattered when the river Ribble was moved 500m south, close to Castle Hill, during the building of the Riversway Docklands. The wells of Preston were drained, covered, and built over after piped water was introduced.

In my locality, on the 1840 OS map, there are three wells close to Fish House Brook in the area now known as Greencroft Valley. By the time of the 1890 OS map, they have disappeared. It was common for local farms and houses, such as Malt Kiln Farm and Hurst Grange, to have their own wells.

As far as I know, the source of Fish House Brook was never used for drinking water. This is likely because it was dark and peaty, flowing off Penwortham Moss somewhere near the present-day southern end of Bank Parade.

The continuing presence of groundwater close to the surface was recently revealed around 10 years ago during the demolition of the Maltings and building of the new houses on Maltings Way and Birch Tree Drive. They broke the secondary aquifer, which continues to leak to this day, down the woodland bank in Greencroft Valley and into Fish House Brook. This has led to the water-logging of the soil and the death of many trees, mostly birch.

Preston Corporation Waterworks

The industrialisation of Preston and some of Penwortham began in the 18th century with Preston’s first cotton mill being opened in 1777. As the town grew, more water than local wells could provide was needed. In 1815, an Act of Parliament led to the formation of the Preston Improvement Commissioners to tackle civil infrastructure and organise a reliable public water supply. Water was first piped from Alston Springs. In 1835, Grimsargh Reservoir and Upper Dilworth reservoir were built to provide further supplies. The waterworks consisted of aqueducts, pumping stations and a network of pipes. 

In 1844, due to concerns about the cleanliness of the water, Preston Corporation took over the waterworks. Around this time, the local wells were closed. Following the cholera outbreak in London, in 1854, St Mary’s Well was capped. The local supply was soon replaced with piped water.

Further reservoirs were built around Longridge – Alston 3 (1842), Spade Mill 1 (1862), Alston 2 (1899), Alston 3 (1931), Spade Mill 2 (1936). In 1932, Stocks Reservoir, in Bowland, was built to supply regional districts including Blackburn and the Fylde coast and began also to feed Preston.

In 1959, Preston Corporation Waterworks was subsumed into Preston and District Water Board. It was then amalgamated into North West Water in 1974. In 1995, North West Water merged with NORWEB to become United Utilities. 

The Alston and Spade Mill reservoirs fell out of use until 2020. Due to increasing demand, the 9.7km Alston and Spade Mill pipeline was built to reconnect the four reservoirs into the network of pipes supplying the region, providing 38,000 million of litres a day – enough for 90,000 homes.  

Spirits of the Water Sources

From the times the first hominids walked the land until the last couple of centuries, water sources such as springs, wells, streams and rivers, have been viewed as sacred. They were seen as inspirited as evidenced by the names of deities, such as Belisama ‘Most Shining One’, goddess of the river Ribble, and folkloric legends of spirits of the wells and well maidens who tended them. These may have given rise to the common name ‘Lady Well’. Many of the well spirits were replaced with Christian saints with similar qualities.

During the industrial period, this sense of sanctity was lost. Water was commodified. People were severed from their connection with local water sources. We became used to having water on tap. Paid for. Paying the companies who had engineered its delivery rather than offering to its true source.

Sadly, most of the old sources are covered over, dried up. Fish House Brook, my closest water source, now emerges from its culvert through a concrete pipe. Still, it is still possible to visit, to pray, to sing, to commune, to make offerings.

When I consulted the Spirit of Fish House Brook on the matter she said:

‘You have broken our ability
to self-regulate, to filter.
You like straight lines.
We like to meander.
Your pipelines 
are like catheters –
lead to blockage and disease.’

Spirits of the Taps and Pipelines

We have three sets of taps in our house and one tap outside. All have their own personalities. Our kitchen tap drips. The bath taps are cranky. They grunt and groan. A bath or shower is never quite the right temperature. The taps of our new sink are far more congenial and friendly. The outdoor tap, to which the hose pipe is attached, is prone to surge and spit and leak.

My journeys to the pipes have been characterised by a feeling of the frustration of waters used to flowing, never stopping, by their own will and volition, getting contrarily pumped along, on demand, or forced to wait. 

There’s a sense of irritation at our clumsiness, at our ineptitude. An “Is it any wonder we burst your pipes?” “Is it any wonder you get infections like the cryptosporidium at the Franklaw Water Treatment Plant at Garstang?”

When I wonder who the ‘we’ are, my logical mind reminds me of the reservoirs and underground sources, but the waters spirits tell me they are “one”. I might call them “the spirits of the north west waters,” if I wish.

The pipes, like the taps, have their spirits too, their personalities. Bound up with them are their makers, their users, the places their materials come from. We have old lead pipes, hopefully, now, with another mineral deposit to be safe.

When I have a drink, a bath or a shower, something I have been doing automatically and without much thought since I was very young, I now do my best to give a word of thanks to the spirits of the waters, the taps, the pipes. To our artificial water sources and the still-living waters that flow within.

SOURCES

Dillon, P. ‘The Story of St Mary’s Well,’ Stories from the Land, (2014) https://peterjohndillon.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/the-story-of-st-marys-well-penwortham/
Whittaker, G.  ‘Waterworks and a high death rate, Victorian Preston,’ Blog Preston, (2023), https://www.blogpreston.co.uk/2023/04/waterworks-and-a-high-death-rate-victorian-preston/
‘16.5 million project to tap into north pennine water supplies gets underway in Lancashire, United Utilities, (2021)