The Kirby-le-Soken Spring Water Supply
The Kirby-le-Soken Spring Water Supply |
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In 1877 the villagers of Kirby-le-Soken were provided with a supply of good water by one Colonel Blanchard, a local landowner. This is the story of the provision of the supply along with more recent efforts made to restore the supply and stand pipes to working order.
Colonel Blanchard was a keen yachtsman with a family estate in Hampshire who also owned The Farm at Walton and much of the land south of Kirby village westwards from Brick Barn. He was the first Governor of Fort Victoria, British Columbia and remained as Governor when the fort became the City of Victoria, British Columbia and part of the new Dominion of Canada.
In 1877 Colonel Blanchard gave to the villagers of Kirby-le-Soken the right to water from a spring above Chartfield on the southern edge of the village and a wayleave for a 2" pipe to cross his land to conduct the water to the village street. The villagers paid into a subscription fund which, with a substantial donation from the Colonel, paid for the spring to be bricked in and piped. The seven stand pipes with taps gravity fed by the spring were installed at intervals along the south side of The Street from a point opposite quay Lane to Brook Cottage at the west end. Total Cost : £377.00.
Thus Kirby became one of the few villages to have a piped water supply, instead of the unreliable and not overclean wells and ponds which were the usual source of water at that time. Previously, in dry weather drinking water was sold from a water cart which came from Walton. In his Annual Report for 1901 the Medical Officer of Health for Essex described Kirby-le-Soken as "having a good and plentious supply of piped water", quite a remarkable thing then.
The Kirby-le-Soken Village Waterworks Fund was also created in 1877 with a Deed of Gift and £50 in Consols from Col. Blanchard and the balance of the villagers' subscriptions as its capital, with the Vicar and Churchwardens as its Trustees. The incumbent at that time, the Rev. Stagg, caused collections to be made at intervals and saw that the system was maintained, but after his death in 1898 which followed that of Col. Blanchard in 18xx, the water supply was taken for granted until 1928 when the Rev. Hunniford first became aware of the existence of the Fund. The interest on the 2.5% Consols had been slowly accumulating all this time and he invested it in a 3.5% War Loan, to which his successor, the Rev. Hodgkinson added another £10 from the balance.
These £80 worth of securities still belong to the Fund and yield interest of £2.28 per annum, but their market value has declined to around £17.
In 1947 it was proposed by the Trustees that the Urban District Council should take over the repair and maintenance of the Supply (and the existing funds), but at a Public Meeting called by the Rev. Thomas this proposal was strongly resisted and a village Committee formed to look after the Supply and work in conjunction with the Trustees. Apart from several stormy incidents connected with access to the 'well' and stopcock (various parts of the Blanchard land having been sold off), apathy again took over until the formation of the Kirby-le-Soken Preservation Society in 1964.
One of the projects they undertook was an investigation into the history and security of the Village Water Supply, regarded as urgent because increasing development in the village could lead to disturbance of the long buried iron pipes.
Almost at once it was discovered that the Trustees had lost the original Deed of Gift, and although surviving correspondence revealed the name of the firm of Solicitors who had drawn the Deed they had been bombed out during the 1939 - 1945 war and no trace could be found of them or of any firm succeeding them who might still have copy. This was a critical situation, and the Preservation Society undertook the expensive and onerous task of obtaining a re-issue of the Deed of Gift, guided and greatly assisted by Mr. Tom Dimmick who was a member of the Society and a trained archivist. Mr. Sansom of Messrs. Beaumont & Sansom of Coggeshall agreed to act as the Society's solicitor, a choice made because of that firm's interest and experience in Manorial Rights and Deeds.
Since the names of the Trustees had not been altered and re-registered as they died or left the Parish the last named had to be traced, their heirs contacted, their Wills examined and probate applied for, if this had not already been done, to make sure none of them had bequeathed any of their rights as Trustees. Also it had to be checked that Col. Blanchard had not retained any rights in the supply.
Because subscription lists, some dating back to 1884, were still in existence it was relatively simple to prove that the villagers had used and maintained the water supply continuously since the original gift.
The wayleave presented some difficulty, because although M gave us a copy of the relevant paragraph in his deeds concerning the 'well' and piping over his fields the owner of the Hillcrest land had omitted this when he sold the land to developers.
However, after legalities galore and a Public Meeting a new Deed was drawn up; accompanied by sworn statements it was accepted and registered, the Trustees being named as:
Since that time there have been several occurrences resulting in damage or blockage to the pipelines. Some culprits have paid for repairs; some, such as the North East Essex Building Company and the Army have repudiated liability on various 'legal' grounds. The sums involved did not justify the risk and high cost of action for recovery, and again by the generosity of the Kirby Preservation Society the bills have been paid, not forgetting a substantial donation from the Friends of the Saxon Theatre after a successful tour of their Christmas float.
One large repair needs to be done in order to bring Tap 7 back into use, but owing to the death of Jim Oxborrow who has for long maintained the Supply and to the lack of money in the bank this has been delayed. It will be seen that without gifts and subscriptions to augment their tiny income the Trustees cannot afford even small repairs, and although the residents of Kirby have the right to the water they also have the responsibility of keeping it flowing.
The water from the 'well' and taps is sampled and analysed 3 times per year as is mains water, and is pure, soft and abundant. It is the hope of the Trustees that this water supply will be kept going, for both practical and historical reasons.
Barbara H. Oxborrow, 1979.
(In 1979, the Trustees were the Rev. P. Garner BSc, Mrs. B. H. Oxborrow and Mr. Michael Dews.)
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The pipeline was laid in the bottom of the deep ditch which ran along the south side of the Street. This has been filled in at various times, and in places the road has been widened over the ditch or a footpath installed, all of which complicates the task of repairs.
The siting of the taps reflects the pattern of settlement at the time of installation; there was another tap for the school, now the Church Hall, which was later removed.
In 1990 Cllr. Trevor Oxborrow was the Local Government Trustee. His October 1990 newsletter (Kirby & Gt. Holland Independent News) contained this article:
KIRBY-LE-SOKEN WATER SUPPLY
Newcomers to Kirby often wonder what the standpipes in The Street and Walton Road are for. Locals know that these are connected to Kirby's own village water supply, collectively owned by residents.
For the last 3 years, the taps have been dry due to a series of problems: pipes under the pavement cracked by heavy vehicles (the pipes were originally in a ditch on which the pavement was built); the pipe uprooted by a JCB in Victoria Avenue; stop-cock failure; stand-pipe failure.
Now, local water engineer Chris Byford-Smith has come to the rescue, applying his skills to the 137-year-old system. There is just one more break to fix before 6 of the 7 taps can run again. The trouble is, the break is under a pavement and we need a team of diggers to speed the work.
Volunteers needed, please! Leave a message on Frinton 671428 (24hrs) if you can help for a couple of hours one weekend soon.
Report on condition of pipeline 11 January 1991, by Chris Byford-Smith
During the early part of 1990 I began to think about the spring water supply and wondered why it was not still operating. After a few enquiries were made I learned that the supply had been turned off because of a bad burst in The Street and some of the stand pipes had been vandalised. I obtained permission to do an investigation into the problems with a view to getting the supply operational again. The first job was to get the stand pipes to hold water - this was not too much of a problem and the work was soon completed.
The water was then turned on but such a small amount of water came out of the taps that it was obvious that we had a problem. After leaving the water turned on for a whole Sunday we soon learned that a number of properties in Victoria Avenue had water flooding their back gardens, so the water was again turned off. I then made enquiries and investigated the source of the flooding which was in the garden of Mr. Belcher. He kindly agreed to let me dig up his garden to find the fault - this I did on the following weekend in July.
I quickly found the problem which was that a JCB, on previously removing the old apple trees, had also removed about a metre of the water main. I dug back each side to expose enough good pipe and made the necessary repair to the old 2" iron pipe with a 63mm MDPE blue plastic water pipe.
When the water was again turned on we had fairly good pressure from all 6 stand pipes but there was a bad leak on No. 6, which I repaired.
After leaving the water on for about 2 hours, a leak appeared on the path and road opposite Low Barn, Walton Road.
I decided to wait until the autumn before digging up the road as the traffic in the summer would make the job more hazardous.
On the 18 October, Brian Benstead and I dug up the footpath and found the pipe 900mm down in the clay. We also found the leak, which was duly cut out and repaired and the water reinstated. Unfortunately the pipe was in such poor condition that it leaked further up the hill within about 3 metres of the leak just repaired. We decided to reinstate the footpath and leave the water shut off until it was decided on the next course to take.
WE DO HAVE SOME OPTIONS!
1. Dig up the footpath at standpipe No.2 and valve off at this point, leaving the water turned on to the first 2 stand-pipes. Wait until the fund can afford to replace a longer section of pipe. We would also be able to check the condition of the pipe at this point.
2. Do nothing until the fund can afford to replace a longer length of pipe.
3. Investigate the possibility of pulling sections of smaller pipe through the existing 2-inch iron pipe between standpipes 2 and 3. This may reduce the pressure at the last 4 standpipes and may not be practical.
I have reason to believe that there may be another leak in Victoria avenue but cannot say for certain until the water can be left on for a longer period of time.
The quality of the water gives me rise for some concern in these times when health and safety mean so much. How often would the water have to be tested and how pure does the water have to be? If the water was blamed for making someone ill it might be very expensive proving otherwise. Perhaps a notice on each stand pipe would suffice. The well manhole in the field would have to be tamper proof and animal proof as at the moment it can be removed with ease.
Chris Byford-Smith, 11 January 1991
In 1991, the Trustees were the Vicar of Kirby-le-Soken Parish, Trevor Oxborrow and Chris Byford-Smith.
In 1991/2, Eastern Gas decided to lay mains gas pipes in Kirby-le-Soken for the first time. Realising that this would involved trench digging closely parallel to the water supply pipes, Trevor Oxborrow approached the appropriate gas company representative. Eastern Gas readily offered to lay new pipe, supplied by the Trustees, in their trench between taps 2 and 3. The new 63mm blue plastic pipe was subsequently connected to the old by Chris Byford-Smith.
Trevor Oxborrow.