SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

This one shows more of the archeologicl survey, with the excavation areas in red and the red dotted lines showing where the former water courses were...Hope it is of some use..

That's great stuff Lee. Very extensive system there. There is no sign of that outflow near Leeds bridge on that map. If I remember correctly the street there is called Pitfall street and didn't it supply water back up into the town at one time?

Phill_d wrote: That's great stuff Lee. Very extensive system there. There is no sign of that outflow near Leeds bridge on that map. If I remember correctly the street there is called Pitfall street and didn't it supply water back up into the town at one time? Not sure Phill, would have been damn dirty if it did!!

I think it was filthy Lee.Leeds was one of the first towns in Britain to have a piped water supply to houses. It came into operation in 1694 and was designed by the engineers George Sorocold and Henry Gilbert. A water wheel built near Leeds Bridge, Lower Briggate, pumped water from the River Aire through 11/2 miles of 3-inch diameter lead pipes to a storage reservoir - or 'cistern' - in Wade Lane, whence it served the wealthier inhabitants in a town of 7,000. The only materials available for pipes at that time were either lead or the bored trunks of elm trees. Sixty years later, when the total population had risen to approximately 17,000, new works were built at Pitt Fall Mills, near The Calls. In the 1790's three storage reservoirs were built near Albion Street.

The early years of the nineteenth century the waterworks company was supplying about 2,000 houses. Most of the inhabitants of Leeds relied instead on wells, boreholes, water-carriers and the River Aire. Water-carriers it should be noted charged 2 shillings per week for many, a sum almost as much as their total weekly rent for accomodation. The River Aire by 1830 however, was completely unsafe for drinking. According to Charles Fowler in the 'Leeds Intelligencer' (21/8/1841), it was charged with the contents of about 200 water closets and similar places, a great number of common drains, the drainings from dunghills, the Infirmary (dead leeches, poultices for patients, etc), slaughter houses, chemical soap, gas, dung, dyehouses and manufacturies, spent blue and black dye, pig manure, old urine wash, with all sorts of decomposed animal and vegetable substances from an extent of drainage between Armley Mills to the Kings Mill amounting to about 30,000,000 gallons per annum of the mass of filth with which the river is loaded."Small wonder that the death rate in Leeds rose from 20.7 per thousand in 1831 to 27.2 per thousand in 1841. The average life expectancy in Leeds,according to figures given by Chadwick, was as follows:    

There's more of this stuff in the David Sellars 'beneath our feet' and 'King Cholera' article here.http://www.dsellers.demon.co.uk/sewers/sew_ch1.htm

Straying from the point a bit here but apparently the area marked on the attached is where they buried alot of the cholera victims in the 1832 outbreak I think. Stretches out into the road a little I think.Building the parks in Leeds wasa direct response to this (as well as a good measure of civic ppride as usual!!!)

There is an old drain which runs from beneath the site of Greenwood & Batley's on Armley Road to the river. It's a pipe about 2 feet in diameter. It was accidentally broken into during the 70s during the excavation of a sump. It definately empties into the Aire, and therefore must run under the canal.

chameleon wrote: This is a shaky-shot of the entrance - can see better from this than in real life! Looks like a plywood shutter just inside and a cable conduit running across the top. Flip. New camera, massive file size scissors not working to make it smaller, need to work on that! ***Let's see if this is better - There's defiately something in there, didn't even see the plywood in real life!

Si wrote: There is an old drain which runs from beneath the site of Greenwood & Batley's on Armley Road to the river. It's a pipe about 2 feet in diameter. It was accidentally broken into during the 70s during the excavation of a sump. It definately empties into the Aire, and therefore must run under the canal. Is that the same outflow you can see up the river from Wellington bridge. It looks like a massive round pipe outlet, all in stone!