In the 19th century, as water got scarcer in the town some of the better off citizens bought their water off water carriers who would deliver to your door for about one penny for three gallons. Their problem was getting hold of the water. It's fairly obvious that they couldn't get it from the existing town sources, they were all spoken for so they had to go further afield. Emma Clark told me that Garibaldi Pickles who lived near the Dog used to deliver water for three halfpence a bucket. Thomas Whitaker carted water from Gilbert Well opposite Wood End bungalow on Whitemoor and sold it for a penny a bucket. Emma said it was lovely clean water, far better than the town wells. This raises an important point, human beings tend to pollute their environment and many of the water sources in the town, though described as 'wells' were actually nothing more than gathered surface water which could easily be polluted by waste. This was not fully understood in the early 19th century, the favourite explanation for the transmission of disease was the 'miasmic theory' which held that infection was airborne, this is why all schools and public buildings at that time had large ventilators on their roofs.
In 1854 there was a bad outbreak of Cholera in the Broad Street area of Soho in London. Dr John Snow realised that the source was the Broad Street pump, the water had become polluted by cess pits in the surrounding houses. Once this discovery became public it changed the focus of debate on 'The Sanitary Question' all over the country and safe water supplies became the aim of every local council including Barlick.
There was no adequate public water supply in Barnoldswick until about 1895. Prior to the founding of the Barnoldswick Local Board in 1890, the body that supervised the provision of water was the Skipton Rural District Sanitation Authority. They had powers to borrow money and investigate provision of public sanitation services and this included a water supply. We know that they were pursuing the matter in October 1878 because this is the date on a letter from their consultants, Brierley and Holt, who were dealing with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company’s objection to the use of White House Spring as a supply for the town (This spring is across the road from White House Farm below Whitemoor). The Canal Company used the overflow from the spring for supplying the canal and were jealously protecting their rights. In the same month the Authority accepted the advice of Brierley and Holt that W H Wood of Cragg Farm, Foulridge, the owner of the farm and the spring, was asking too much for the water. The rural board accepted the B&H recommendation to bore for water and eventually on September 4th 1890 bought land from David Rushworth to build a waterworks below Whitemoor near the Fanny Grey pub.
We're getting nearer to the mains supply. More next week!
The waterworks as built in 1895.
