Worksop Waterworks Company

Joseph Garside, a local entrepreneur who owned a large wood yard in the town and subsequently ran the Worksop and Retford Brewery Company, had stood for the board initially, but failed to get elected. However, he had more success in 1856, and became its chairman in 1857, a position which he held for 19 years. Like many towns, the poorer areas of Worksop were often affected by outbreaks of cholera, typhus and typhoid, and under Garside's leadership, construction of a main drainage scheme for the town began in 1859. The engineer was Robert Rawlinson,[11] whose report on sewerage schemes in several towns, including Worksop, was presented to the Society of Arts in 1862, and published in The Engineer.[12] The details of the scheme are presented in two tables, but it is not clear why they differ so much. Both show that there were some sewers constructed of brick, and much longer lengths constructed using earthenware pipes of 15 inches (38 cm), 12 inches (30 cm) and 9 inches (23 cm) diameter. Cast iron pipes of the same sizes were used where the sewers had to cross the Chesterfield Canal, the River Ryton, and the canal feeder. The main brick sewer ran from Bridge Street to Beaver Place, and was of egg-shaped construction, with an overflow to the River Ryton where it ended, and the earthenware pipes to the outlet works began. The system included 75 manholes and 48 lampholes, to allow the sewers to be inspected, together with 51 ventilating shafts. The upper ends of the sewers were provided with flushing tanks, and the outlet works consisted of six trenches, about 200 feet (61 m) long and 3 feet (0.91 m) deep, where lime water was added for disinfection and moveable screens removed solid matter. The filtered sewage was then discharged into the Ryton, and although Rawlinson believed that the works were efficient, he suggested that the liquid would be better filtered by applying it to vegetable soil under full cultivation. His two tables show that the total length of sewers was 12,249 yards (11,200 m) or 6,263 yards (5,727 m), and that installation costs were £5,871 or £3,107.[13]

Despite Rawlinson's assurances, the scheme was not wholly successful, and the inadequacy of the outlet works was brought into focus by new legislation to prevent the discharge of sewage into rivers, following the findings of the River Pollution Commission.[14] The issue was resolved on 19 August 1881, when a new pumping station at Bracebridge was switched on, to pump the effluent to Kilton Forest Farm, owned by Mr F J S Foljambe of Osberton, where it was discharged onto the fields. The cost of the scheme was nearly double the original estimate of £8,000. The engine house, offices and a house for the attendant cost £7,000, another £4,500 was spent on the engines, boilers and pumps, while repairs to the existing system and the new pipeline to Kilton cost £3,500. The revised scheme, including the design of the Italianate pumping station, was the responsibility of the Local Board of Health's surveyor, John Allsopp. The engine house contained two beam engines, connected to double-acting pumps. They were manufactured by Joseph Clayton of Preston, and were rated at 40 hp (30 kW). Each could pump 0.8 million imperial gallons (3.6 Ml) per day along the 1.25-mile (2.0 km) pipeline to Kilton, around twice the volume actually required at the time.[14]

At the opening ceremony, John Mapson, the chairman of the Board of Health, and John Thornton each started one of the engines. They were then stopped for Mapson to address the gathering. To express their gratitude that the scheme had been completed, he invited all the workmen who had worked on the scheme to dinner at the Golden Ball on the following Monday. The party then went to Kilton Farm, but arrived before the sewage started to discharge, and because the weather was inclement, left straight away.[15] By the time the new works were completed, Worksop had borrowed £37,000 to fund improvements to the town, and most of it had been spent on the sewerage system.[16] Bracebridge pumping station, together with its chimney, is now a grade II listed structure. It was built in the Italian Romanesque style, of red bricks and ashlar with dressings of gault and blue brick, and a hipped slate roof.[17] Allsopp became the engineer and surveyor for the board in 1876, having previously worked on the Settle and Carlisle Railway, the Duffield and Selston branch of the Midland Railway, and then for four years on drainage and sewerage projects. He resigned from the board in 1884, to follow a career as a freelance architect and surveyor.[18]

By 1932, the pumping station had been operating for over 50 years, without any major issues. However, the amount of effluent being pumped each day had risen from 200,000 imperial gallons (0.91 Ml) to 700,000 imperial gallons (3.2 Ml), and while the pumps could easily handle this volume, being capable of dealing with twice that amount, the council were concerned that failure of the pumps would lead to severe pollution of the Ryton. In addition, the receiving tanks at the pumping station were not really deep enough, resulting in sewage backing up in the sewers. Finally, because the hours when pumping was allowed were restricted, the tanks would often be overflowing into the river by the morning, particularly if there was rainfall during the night. This had resulted in complaints being made by the Notts County Health Department and the Trent Fishery Board. The council met in December 1932 to consider two schemes, one to refurbish the pumping station, and the other for an extension of the main drain to a site near Manton railway viaduct, where a new pumping station would be constructed. Although the cost of this option was £45,596, almost five times the cost of refurbishment, the council voted for the more costly scheme, as it would enable land to the east of the current site to be developed, without having to pump sewage back to Bracebridge.[19]

In November 1962, Charles Allsopp, the Borough Engineer, delivered a lengthy paper to the council's Health and Sewerage Committee, which was printed in full in the local newspaper in early 1963, by which time Allsopp had retired. Some minor changes had been made to the original scheme, to make the removal of sludge and screenings easier, and in 1939, the steam-driven pumps had been replaced by vertical spindle pumps, driven by electric motors. The 1932 scheme for a new pumping station had not gone ahead, because although approval had been sought from the Ministry of Health, a "Worksop Industrial Scheme" was proposed, which might have seen the population of the town increase to 100,000 in under five years. The pumping station scheme was deferred until the uncertainty could be resolved, and the onset of the Second World War brought further delays. Post-war shortages prevented any progress, and the system continued to serve the needs of the town. There were some difficulties, caused by the inability of the farmer to cope with the steadily increasing volumes of liquid pumped to the farm. This was allowed to flow into Thievesdale Lane, where it created a hazard, and small quantities of zinc and nickel in the effluent, derived from talcum powder, oxidation of water tanks, and industrial discharges, were thought to be responsible for crop failures at the sewage farm.[20]

Allsopp thought the difficulties could be partially mitigated by extending the pumping main northwards to Carlton Forest Farm, where 234 acres (95 ha) of land could be used for broad irrigation, in addition to the 400 acres (160 ha) at Kilton Forest Farm. It might then have been possible to extend the hours during which pumping was allowed, but he could not see a simple solution to the presence of zinc and nickel, and thought that broad irrigation might have to be abandoned soon, to be replaced by treatment at a sewage works. He estimated the cost of such a works to be around £350,000.[20] By 1957, the daily flow pumped to the sewage farm had risen to 1.3 million imperial gallons (5.9 Ml), and ministerial approval was again sought for a replacement pumping station at Manton viaduct. At a similar time, the spindle pumps were replaced by submersible pumps in the collecting tanks, making the 1881 buildings redundant.[21]

The modern Worksop Sewage Works, seen from the south. The sludge treatment facility is to the right.

Significant change occurred on 1 April 1974, when the Water Act 1973 came into force. Nearly 1400 sewage treatment authorities in England and Wales were removed from Local Authority control, and their function became the responsibility of one of ten new Water Authorities. In Worksop's case this was the Severn Trent Water Authority. Assets transferred included all main sewers, treatment works, and outfalls. The new authorities also took over the responsibilities of most of the existing water supply authorities, as well as the 29 River Authorities established under the Water Resources Act 1963.[22] Within two years, Worksop gained a new sewage treatment works, costing £1.5 million, and suitable for a population of 60,000 people.[21]

A new sludge treatment facility was built at the sewage works in the 2010s. Sludge from Worksop sewage works and several other sewage works in the locality was transported by road to Stoke Bardolph, where it was used to generate energy. In order to reduce the number of trips by tankers carrying the sludge, Worksop was chosen as a central location for Severn Trent's northern area, and therefore the site for the new facility, which cost £15 million. To reach the site, lorries had to pass through a residential area, and a new access road was constructed as part of the project to avoid this.[23] The road crossed the Chesterfield Canal by a single span concrete bridge, which was clad with masonry to make it look more traditional, and had to avoid damaging an area to the south of the canal which provides habitat for water voles. It also crossed the River Ryton using a four-span viaduct, with each span being 59 feet (18 m) long.[24] The sludge treatment plant consists of an acid phase digester, which pre-treats the sludge to allow the two downstream gas phase digesters to break down the sludge more completely. The plant can process 450 cubic metres of sludge per day, and the gas produced is used to generate power.[25] The new facility is designed to handle a maximum of 10,209 tonnes of dry solids per year, 80 per cent of which is delivered to the site by road tankers. It was designed and constructed by the civil engineers Mott MacDonald Bentley,[26] with commissioning taking place during the winter of 2014/2015.[27]