The Alcester Waterworks Company: A Study in the Small-scale Technology of Water Supply

Abstract

The Alcester Waterworks Company supplied a small town in Warwickshire with water from 1879 until 1947. Always a miniscule concern, the company used very simple technology throughout its existence. The introduction of a gas engine as a replacement for a waterwheel as a source of power for pumping produced a reduction in pumping expenses which transformed the company's financial affairs. The surviving remains of the company's installations give a picture of the simple technology used and allow some tentative conclusions to be made about the causes of the difficulties with pumping which the company experienced in its early days.