By Joan Clarke

In a hollow in the low hills east of Over Kellet lies a quiet lake, overhung by trees, where trout can be caught. Before 1879 there was no lake, only a hollow in the hills with a small stream running through. The place was known as Pedder Potts, perhaps because it was a conveniently sheltered and retired spot for pedlers to hole up.

By 1875, however, the growing town of Carnforth was finding itself short of water. Between 1861 and 1871 the population had shot up from 579 to 1,061, and was to continue to grow till by 1891 it had doubled the 1871 figure. Until the mid-century it had managed, like the surrounding villages, with water from wells & springs, supplemented by rain water collected from roofs, but it was beginning to need town facilities.

The Lancaster Rural Sanitary Authority, which at that date was responsible for Carnforth’s public health, had in the course of its duties added to the problem. It had seen to it that Carnforth was supplied with sewers. These encouraged the installation of water closets yet, without water to flush them, the sewers simply clogged up. At a meeting of the Rural Sanitary Authority in April 1876 a Mr Kaye was outspoken. He had visited Carnforth “where there was no water to flush sewers, and there was a stench from outfalls”¹.

The Rural Sanitary Authority were looking about for alternative water sources. In December 1875 Mr Jowett, the Sanitary Inspector, reported on the Wheelhole, St Oswald’s Well and Carlpot Hole, all known springs which fed into the River Keer from the neighbouring village of Warton. He thought they could supply enough water for Carnforth’s needs, but it showed on tests “16 degrees of hardness”². This would be on Clark’s scale, which was used at the time, and would correspond to over 210 parts per million of calcium carbonate, i.e. very hard.

It was at this point that Pedder Potts first gets a mention. At the next meeting, in January 1876, the Medical Officer of Health reported on samples from there. The water was satisfactorily soft since its drainage area lay over millstone grit³. A subcommittee, which included Mr Barton, manager of Carnforth Iron Works, was set up to consider Carnforth’s water supply.

Within a month the subcommittee had its report ready. In February 1876 the Sanitary Authority was asked to consider” … a stream [Swarthbeck] which runs through Pedder Pots, a large natural ravine with a narrow outlet at Over Kellet … about two miles east of Carnforth. Further details were given. The 500 acre drainage area of the stream received an estimated 45 inches of rain a year, making available, even after evaporation, an estimated 600,000 gallons a day. Pedder Potts could easily be embanked to impound 54 million gallons. This would be enough to supply the town for 180 days. These calculations seem to imply that some 200 gallons/head/day was going to be consumed; a startlingly generous estimate for the era. In 1899 the Rural Medical Officer of Health wrote in his annual report that 25/gals/head/day would be enough for Galgate. Even to-day 200 gallons would be high for domestic consumption. In the drought of 1965 quoted estimates of daily domestic consumption were between 40 and 66 gallons/head⁴.

At this point the clerk recorded that someone, it is not said who, had pointed out that “It is probable that a considerable quantity of water would be taken at Carnforth for trade purposes at a reasonable charge” Since the Iron Works were far and away the biggest industrial concern Carnforth, it seems probable that this contribution in came from Mr Barton, the manager of the Iron Works’s and a member of the Authority, and may account for the unusually large amount of water thought necessary. On 11 March 1876, it was recorded that the Rural Sanitary Authority “was disposed” to provide a water supply itself, and that Mr Barton had taken it on himself to inform the Carnforth ratepayers of this.

In April Carnforth’s ratepayers held their meeting to consider the implications for Carnforth of a Water Bill which Lancaster had put before Parliament. They had not been told by Mr Barton of the Rural Sanitary Authority’s scheme. The meeting agreed that Carnforth needed water, though there were dissenting voices from the old-fashioned. A Mr R. Jackson said anyone that wanted could have enough water as it was. They only had to install a rain-water cistern as he had done twenty years before. He had never been without water since. As for sewerage, it was not wanted “except by certain parties who required their own blunders to be hid.” What, if anything, he meant by this sinister rider does not emerge. In the end it was decided to appoint a committee of ratepayers to look into the implications for Carnforth of Lancaster’s scheme⁵.

The Rural Sanitary Authority went ahead with preparing plans for the reservoir, but at a meeting on 3 June 1876 there was the first hint of trouble. Mr Barton asked whether, if the RSA constructed the works on behalf of Carnforth and at its sole cost, the authority would be able to extend the supply to other places “without the concurrence of the ratepayers of Carnforth”. The Local Government Board had to be consulted and on 23 September 1876 their reply was received. The Board thought other places could be supplied.

Mr Barton was not present at the meeting, but seems to have been prepared. He had left a message with the clerk “as one of the principal ratepayers and owners of property at Carnforth, he should under the circumstances, decidedly object to Sanitary Authorities providing a water supply for Carnforth”. Mr Barton had hitherto supported the Rural Sanitary Authority’s scheme and this turn around on his part seems to have been unexpected. The minutes end with the words “decision deferred”.

At a meeting on 21 October 1876 Mr Barton issued his terms. He was not present himself, but sent in his terms in writing. The Sanitary Authority must either render itself legally incapable of supplying other towns, or share out the costs or the reservoir with any township that was going to use it. Failing that there would have to be either a private water company, or Carnforth would have to become a Sanitary Authority in its own right (as it ultimately did in 1895) and arrange the supply for itself.

The reception of Mr Barton’s ultimatum is not recorded in the Sanitary Authority minutes. All we know is that it was resolved that a private water company would best meet “the difficulties”. The Lancaster Guardian, however, picked up that something unusual was happening. In November 1876 an article appeared which commented that “Our Carnforth neighbours [are] somewhat surprised” to learn that a private water company was to be set up, and by some “extraordinary arrangement” was taking over from the Rural Sanitary Authority. This, said the article, was against all current practice which held that every community should have control of its own water supply. The article warned that “A private venture would not be established for a purely philanthropic object. It would want profits … “and these would “have to be paid for by the consumers⁶.

At the same time it had occurred to some rate-payers that decisions had improperly been taken out of their hands. A public meeting of the Inhabitants of Carnforth was called in November “for the purpose of hearing a statement from … Mr Barton”⁷. The report of the meeting consists largely of a two column speech from Mr Barton. He told his hearers that he had not, as it might have seemed, gone behind their backs. He would at once have told them of the Rural Sanitary Authority’s project for a reservoir at Pedder Potts, but he had found out that, if the Rural Sanitary Authority built the reservoir, Carnforth would pay for it through the rates, and could then expect to have to supply Warton and Bolton. Naturally, when Mr Barton said how horrified he had been by this there were cries of hear! hear !. Was Mr Barton being a little disingenuous? In giving its advice on whether other townships could be supplied the Local Government Board had been most careful to add that “it would be advisable for the Rural Sanitary Authority to look into that very need and apportion the cost⁸.

Mr Barton went on to tell the meeting how he had immediately rushed ahead with plans to found a private water company, with money raised in Manchester, but with some stock reserved for Carnforth men to buy if they wished. The matter of the unflushed sewers had been considered, he assured his hearers. The Rural Sanitary Authority would buy the small amount of water they needed for this from the Water Company. A Mr Clarkson did try to raise objections, but he was wrong-footed by Mr Barton and the chairman, Mr R. Jackson (the same who at the beginning of the year had insisted Carnforth did not need a water supply anyway). At the end of his long speech Mr Barton had turned to Mr Clarkson and asked if he had anything he wanted to say. The chairman took him up “Come Mr Clarkson, say what you have to say, and then you won’t have to say it outside.” There were protests from the floor at this, but Mr Clarkson had already lost his cool. He did manage to ask if it would not be cheaper to buy the water from Lancaster, but he had no figures and details to match those Mr Barton had at his fingertips.

Only one other person is reported as having spoken. A Mr Fell of Warton asked why were the mains only to go as far as Warton church? Did that need flushing out too? (laughter). Mr Barton joined in the little joke, but assured Mr Fell that all Warton could be supplied if needed. The meeting thus restored to good humour there was nothing left for the chairman to do but thank Mr Barton for his careful exposition. There really was not much else he could do. The Carnforth Water Company was already in existence and had issued notice of its intention to build a reservoir at Pedder Potts and to apply to Parliament for powers to supply Carnforth, Warton and Bolton with water⁹.

What were Mr Barton’s motives in suddenly pushing through the private water company? Probably mixed. He seems throughout his life to have had a genuine concern for the well-being of Warton where he lived and Carnforth where he worked¹⁰. He would, very properly, wish to do the best for the Carnforth Iron Works of which he was manager. The Iron Works till then had made do with water from the Keer. This, as the Inspector had reported was very hard. Plenty of soft water, perhaps on more reasonable terms than a public company would offer, would be good for the Iron Works. They certainly made use of it. By the time the iron works closed, some fifty years later, they were estimated to be using more water than the whole of the rest of Carnforth put together¹¹

There is no reason at all to think in terms of “sleaze”. Throughout Mr Barton’s long life no breath of scandal touched him. But he did like to do good to people on his own terms. During the course of the rate-payers meeting in November he was asked if it would not be better for Carnforth to set up its own Board of Health. He replied that he would not encourage it and among other reasons said “It would be costly, and he for one would not care to have the turmoil caused and the animus engendered by elections. From the interest he had in Carnforth they would probably make him chairman, and he would not care to have the annoyance of elections or to sit with a number of men who had different opinions from himself”¹². His worst enemy could hardly have described better his peculiar brand of arrogant benevolence.

It would take detailed research to judge if Carnforth lost out through Mr Barton’s high- handedness. Pedder Potts reservoir was quickly built, being reported ready to supply water by Christmas 1879¹³. The water it supplied seems to have been properly tested and safe, though not always satisfactory in appearance¹⁴. In the early 1930s one irate customer is said to have bounced into the house of Mr R. Baker, the Water Company’s secretary, and finding him out, handed over a jar of dubiously coloured water saying he was to be given that with his compliments¹⁵! The supply of water seems to have been less satisfactory. In June 1895 Lancaster Rural Sanitary Authority asked for repayment of expenses incurred in supplying water during the drought in the summer of 1893 (Does this have a familiar ring?)

The reservoir was enlarged in 1897¹⁶, but complaints continued. In 1934 it was suggested that there would be at least one benefit from the closure of the Iron Works with its huge consumption of water; perhaps there would be an end to “warning notices whenever there was the slightest sign of a drought”¹⁷. Also, when in 1953 the Carnforth Water Works was taken over by Lancaster Corporation, the price of water to consumers immediately came down¹⁸. The reservoir continued to serve the town till 1978 when “It became redundant … and was breached to take the capacity down to a level at which it was no longer covered by the requirements of The Reservoirs Act “¹⁹

Notes

1. Lancaster Guardian, April 8th, 1876, p.7. ↩︎
2. Lancashire Record office, SAL 1/1 “Lancaster Rural Sanitary Authority Minute Book, 1872-8” (Note, unless otherwise stated this is the reference for all quotations from the Sanitary Authority.) ↩︎
3. Alan Harris, Carnforth 1840-1900, The Rise of a North Lancashire Town 1840- 1900, p.117. ↩︎
4. Independent 22 August 1895 and 8 September 1895 ↩︎
5. Lancaster Guardian, April 8th, 1876, p.4. ↩︎
6. Lancaster Guardian, November 18th, 1876, p.5. ↩︎
7. Lancaster Guardian, November 18th, p.9 ↩︎
8. Rural Sanitary Authority Minute Book,1872-78 SAL/1/1, 23 September 1876. ↩︎
9. Lancaster Guardian, November 18th, 1876, p.8. ↩︎
10. J.Chatterley “Mr Edward D. Barton” Mourholme Magazine of Local History, 1995.1, p.19 (. ↩︎
11. Lancaster Guardian, June 22nd, 1934, p.8 ↩︎
12. Lancaster Guardian, November 25th, 1876, p.4. ↩︎
13. Letter from the Engineer, W Harrison of Preston, November 1879, seen by courtesy of North West Water. ↩︎
14. Reports of Inspector of Nuisances passim Lancashire Record Office, RDLa/12/3- 9 ↩︎
15. Miss Smalley, personal communication. ↩︎
16. Information from North West Water. ↩︎
17. Lancaster Guardian June 22, 1934, p.8. ↩︎
18. Lancaster Guardian January 2nd, 1953, p.4. ↩︎
19. Information from North West Water. ↩︎

Published in Mourholme Magazine Issue 27 1996