Water, Water Everywhere

In this day and age virtually all of us take a piped water supply for granted yet we all know what chaos can erupt when this supply is interrupted. Somewhat surprisingly, Pulborough has reaped the benefits of this vital service for less than a century.

For hundreds of years water for drinking and everyday use was supplied by wells, springs and streams. However, following the Industrial Revolution, with unprecedented numbers of people flocking into the towns and cities, and the resultant increase in water-borne diseases such as typhoid and cholera, authorities began to look at providing reliable and potable water supplies.

By the end of the nineteenth century most British towns and cities had piped water supplies but the situation was very different in the countryside. Developing the infrastructure to bring piped water to rural communities was likely to prove to be expensive and since much of the cost was eventually going to fall on these communities such schemes were generally unpopular.

Pulborough was no exception. It had plentiful supplies of water so, when in 1910 the local authority, Thakeham Rural District Council (RDC), proposed a joint scheme with Storrington, this was rejected emphatically. There was then a hiatus of some twelve years, when the local authority, under pressure from the Ministry of Health, again raised the issue. Once again this was resisted by the local community, with one councillor stating that a “water supply was not wanted now, and there would be very few people who would welcome it” and another observing “people live long in Pulborough”.

The Ministry continued to press the issue and the local community continued to resist, extolling the virtues of Pulborough and the longevity of its inhabitants, pointing out the ages of people being interred in the graveyard. However, the Ministry eventually brought the matter to a head by announcing that a Public Inquiry was to be held, at the Railway Hotel, on 3rd March 1927.

Thakeham RDC proposed a scheme which, it said, was going to cost £12,600. To support the case it provided evidence that samples had been taken from 15 wells in the parish and in 12 of these the water had been found to be unfit for drinking purposes and in several of these, the water was found to be very badly polluted. The council suggested acquiring a site at Broomers Hill, where a borehole was to be sunk and a reservoir constructed.
The inspector accepted the council’s scheme but thought the site should be at Upper Nash, Nutbourne rather than Broomers Hill. On the strength of this, the council acquired a site and preliminary works began. However, following a report from a geologist, they decided that a site on Nutbourne Common should be used for the borehole instead.

Preliminary borings took place throughout 1928 and the resultant water was found to be of an acceptable quality. The cost of supplying water to Pulborough was estimated at £11,300 and this was going to involve laying six and a quarter miles of mains.

In 1929, it was decided that the reservoir at Upper Nash could be dispensed with. The Ministry approved the scheme in March 1929 and work to provide the infrastructure commenced, culminating in Lord Leconfield opening the water works on Thursday 3rd March 1932.

Accordingly, it took over twenty years, from when it was first mooted, to provide Pulborough with a piped water supply. The water works at Nutbourne stayed open until the 1970s, and the building then lay derelict for over three decades, until it was transformed into a dwelling house in 2010, when it was the subject of an episode in the BBC series Restoration Home. It is now known as Studio Fold and is used as self-catering accommodation