Loch Katrine and Glasgow's Water Supply

[si21]

This post was exactly what I was looking for. Excellent information. Just visited Loch Katrine today, had a walk along, but not too far (weather was slightly ropey)! I wanted to know more about the journey from there to Glasgow and you supplied the info. Now, I want to look into it all further. I love the heavy engineering aspect to it all. So interesting. Women will be clambering over each other to bear my children!!!

[HollowHorn]

Some more info & photos on here:
http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/ ... untain.htm

[Dexter St. Clair]

Loch Katrine: 150 Years of Glasgow's Water Supply
Exhibition and Talks Programme


Exhibition
The exhibition will be open to the public in the Old Glasgow Room on Thursday 15 October and will run during library opening hours until Thursday 31 December.

The exhibition highlights resources from our collections such as the Thomas Annan Collection and archives from the Town Council and Water Companies. Museums have loaned some very special objects such as the silver handle used by Queen Victoria to open up the supply of water from Loch Katrine and a chair made especially for her to use at the opening ceremony.

As always, the final result is the product of research, co-operation and support across the service and beyond. Thank you to all who have been involved in Archives and Special Collections, Marketing, Digitisation and Conservation and Venue Management, and to Bill Black, the Lord Provost's Office, Land and Environmental Services of Glasgow City Council, Encore and Institution of Civil Engineers.


Talks
The talks are open to the public, are free and not ticketed, but demand may be high, so please encourage any enquirers to come along in good time. Please also note that the starting times for each talk have had to vary. All talks will finish at approximately 7.45pm.


Tuesday 10 November
The Water Supply of Glasgow: Ancient Discoveries
Brian Skillen
6.00pm. Blythswood

Wednesday 9 December
Katrine Water Project: Victorian Legacy Enhanced by 21st Century Engineering
Geoff Aitkenhead,
Scottish Water and Institution of Civil Engineers
6.15pm. Moir/Dyer/Simpson

[Doorstop]

All this taking place in the Mitchell I take it Dex?

I may well happen along to this.

[Don]

Cell, just want to congratulate you on your hard work to assemble this amazing and informative summary. The magnificant works associated with Lock Katrine and the water supply to Glasgow are greatly under appreciated. I grew up on the shores of the loch just beyond The Royal Cottage and clambered around these amazing structures in my youth. As an adult I have searched for a concise account of the entire system and your post provides that. Congratulaions!

Loch Katrine is a real Scottish gem and the works associated with water supply an amazing Victorian accomplishment.

Well done again,

Don Macleod

[Vinegar Tom]

Interesting article from the Evening Times of 07/09/11 about recent archaeological discoveries at the Dalmarnock “athletes village” site for the Commonwealth Games.

The whole article was not available on the ET site for some reason , but I managed to scan a copy of the relevant pages .

Learned a couple of new things from that short article


Glasgow Waterworks Company 1 by vinegartom40, on Flickr


Glasgow Waterworks Company 2 by vinegartom40, on Flickr


Glasgow Waterworks Company 3 by vinegartom40, on Flickr


Glasgow Waterworks Company 4 by vinegartom40, on Flickr

[rude_kid]

"even then"

(nice post, regardless...)

[The Egg Man]

There's supposed to be a big 'valve' on the Loch Katrine - Glasgow water supply near the site of the former church at the gushet of Houldsworth St and St Vincent St. I have no evidence of this (before anyone asks).

[cell]

Thanks VT for taking the time to scan that, I had tried to view it on their web site but ran into the same problems.


Although the Dalmarnock water works were a step forward, they were not an unqualified succes. I’ve attached an extract below from the 1896 Book "GLASGOW Its Municipal Organization and Administration", which gives a bit more background to the site and some of the problems encountered.

"A population growing at a phenomenal rate, in such dire straits for water, presented a magnificent field for either philanthropic or commercial action. Water the people must have, and to supply the want a Bill, partly municipal in origin and partly promoted by private citizens, was, in 1 806, introduced into Parliament and passed into law, whereby was incorporated the Glasgow Water Company, or officially the Company of the proprietors of the Glasgow Water Works. The object of the Company was to raise water from the Clyde at Dalmarnock, about two miles above Glasgow Bridge, and thence supply it to the City and suburbs. The Act empowered the company to raise a capital of £100,000, divided into £50 shares, and it was specially provided that the liability of each subscriber should be limited to the number of his shares. Of these shares the Town Council held throughout twenty, and in the constitution of the Company it was provided that the Lord Provost should ex officio be a member of the Managing Committee. The other original members of the body, nine in addition to the Lord Provost, were nominated in the Act of Parliament.

Under the guidance of James Watt and Thomas Telford, the company at once proceeded to form, on the north bank of the river, filtering beds and ponds, and to erect pumps for raising the water from these ponds to distributing reservoirs in Sydney Street, Drygate, and Rottenrow. The Dalmarnock filters were very soon found to be insufficient, and ground was acquired on the lands of Farme, on the opposite south bank of the river. There an open jointed brick tunnel or culvert was constructed parallel with, but at a lower level, than the bed of the river, and through the sandy banks the water percolated from the Clyde into this tunnel, whence it was led into the subsiding reservoir, and conveyed thence in the bed of the river by a spherical jointed pipe designed by Watt to the pumping station on the north side. Through the river bank into this culvert there percolated on an average about 8,000,000 gallons of water per day, but the quantity varied with the state of the river. The method of filtration was ingenious, but most unsatisfactory. Such as it was, however, it had to do duty for many years as the larger proportion of the potable water of Glasgow, and very considerable quantities were passed into consumption without undergoing any filtration whatever. Among the many causes which contributed to the bad eminence of Glasgow during the first part of the century in matters of health and vitality, indisputably the chief factor was the wretched water supply."

I've attached a link to an old map which shows the layout of the Dalmarnock works,

http://maps.nls.uk/os/25inch/view/?sid=74953153

The Dalmarnock site should not be confused with the Westthorn Pumping station and reservoirs which were upstream of the Belvidere Hospital and is detailed below in an extract from the same 1896 book. The Westthorn scheme was designed to supply water for industrial use being opened c1870 and closed before 1934.

"Water from the River Clyde is, however, still used for manufacturing purposes. Under Acts of Parliament obtained in 1866, 1873, ^^id 1879 arrangements were made and carried out for removing the weir which used to stand across the river a little above Hutchesontown Bridge, and for supplying Clyde water to manufacturers from a public system of pumping- engines, reservoirs, and distributing pipes. This public supply takes the place of the private suction pipes and pumps owned by a number of firms whose premises lay near the river. Much of the original private machinery for drawing water from the Clyde became ineffective through the lowering of the level of the water consequent on the removal of the weir. The public supply was partly to compensate for this loss. The pumping station and reservoirs are situated at Westthorn, on land immediately to the east of that owned by the Corporation, and occupied by the Belvidere Hospital. The works consist of an engine-house containing two separate condensing horizontal pumping engines of 80 horse-power each, together with the necessary boilers and relative appliances. These engines raise water from the river into two reservoirs with a total capacity each of about four millions of gallons. The top-water level of these reservoirs is at a sufficient elevation to enable the water to be delivered into tanks placed at convenient heights above the ground within works situated in the districts of Bridgeton, Hutchesontown, etc., where it is intended to be used. The water is distributed from the reservoirs by a large main with suitable branches. The leading main is at first 42 inches in diameter, it goes from Westthorn by way of Springfield Road, Dalmarnock Road, and Adelphi Street to Main Street, Bridgeton. Here it is diminished to 36 inches diameter. It continues down Newhall Street and across Glasgow Green to the Clyde opposite Govan Street. The main here crosses the river, and is continued along Govan Street to Crown Street where it ends. The diameter on the south side is gradually diminished from 36 ins. to 1 2 ins.

The amount of water delivered by these works is over two-and-a-half millions of gallons per working day. The price to ordinary consumers is 15s. per 100,000 gallons, being rather less than half the price of Loch Katrine water. To certain firms whose interests were specially protected by the Acts of Parliament the price is fixed for definite quantities at 5s. 6d. per 100,000 gallons."

[Vinegar Tom]

Fascinating stuff Cell. A quick peek on Google Earth shows no trace of the reservoirs South of the Clyde shown on the nls map.

[Gerry_R]

There's supposed to be a big 'valve' on the Loch Katrine - Glasgow water supply near the site of the former church at the gushet of Houldsworth St and St Vincent St. I have no evidence of this (before anyone asks).

Egg Man, you're quite correct there is a large sluice valve right outside Anderston Kelvingrove Church on what is termed "Mugdock No 3" supply line its pretty much under the mini roundabout at Houldsworth Street and Elderslie Street.

Before you ask, I work for Scottish Water and I've just checked it

Gerry

[The Egg Man]

Thanks for the confirmation. It's reassuring to know not all local 'myths' are actually myths.

[Gerry_R]

Cheers Egg Man,

Hope this little attachment is some confirmatory evidence

Gerry

[dinkydarko]

I took an interest in this earlier in the year. I want to see if just using old maps and surface details, I could pick out the route water takes from Loch Katerine to my tap. Nearly got there and the info about the line under Argyll street makes me want to finish the job.

Here is a link to what I've done so far http://goo.gl/maps/3RdUk.

Be great if someone more knowledgeable than myself could tell me if I'm going off course anywhere!

David

[cell]

Nice one! Looks like you have the two routes just about right, when I was looking at this myself I had a GPS with me when I visited the sites so I put together a KML file for each aqueduct, but there was a couple of sections I struggled with the exact route. If you drop me a PM with an email address I can send you a copy next week and you can compare the two.