| Central Bordesley had no lack of water. Shallow wells in the drift
provided an abundance, and rills which flowed from the cap could be
dammed to make ponds for stock and fish. Deritend was less fortunate:
if the geology map is correct there must have been a great shortage
of water. Clay is water-bound but has no free water: only the topsoil,
deep where forest had flourished, would contain water that could fill
a well. That at the Old Crown was 25 feet deep. Piped water became
available about mid-C19th from deep wells and the Tame.
Birmingham Corporation bought out the Company in 1876, and thereafter
extended supply to all new buildings and to standpipes in old courts.
Polluted wells were closed as soon as possible. In 1897 Birmingham's
much-expanded local water supplies were fully stretched: Welsh water
was 74 miles and eleven years away. To supply the pool in Victoria
Park a well and pumphouse had to be provided: at Small Heath Baths
a well was sunk 625 feet before aquiferous sandstone could be found
beneath drift and clay. The rapid development of east Bordesley
in the decade before World War I could not have taken place if Elan
water had not been available for house taps and drains.
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