DRAINAGE WORKS

Birmingham Borough Council took over the functions of the Streets Commission in 1852, and at once began work on the first main sewer to drain the town. It was laid in the Reaside meadows of Duddeston and Nechells, to an outfall at the confluence of the Rea and Tame, the lowest point in the borough, within a year. For some reason the outfall and the works subsequently built west of it were given Saltley's name, which is why the subject is dealt with here. Discharge of untreated sewage into the Tame caused accelerating pollution downstream, and C.B. Adderley obtained an injunction in 1858 to prevent the connection of any more town sewers to the main. The Corporation quickly built settling tanks and drying sheds, and bought 30 acres of land (including some in north Saltley) on which dried sludge could be dumped, at a rate of a hundred tons a day. Following Adderley's further complaints about the river stench, due not only to the effluent but also to the quantities of putrefying fish, more and still more land was purchased for sludge dumping. 'Saltley' Works were extended; the course of the Rea being diverted into Saltley to make room.

In 1877 the Birmingham Tame & Rea District Drainage Board was set up, with headquarters at 'The Rookery' in Erdington, to ensure that the Borough's efforts to keep the Tame clean were not nullified by the sins of omission of other drainage authorities - like the Aston Rural Sanitary Board, which served Saltley and Little Bromwich after a fashion. In 1880 the West Cole Sewer was laid, to drain Small Heath, and to this much of Little Bromwich was ultimately to be connected. In time Saltley was drained by the East Rea Sewer.

In 1894 the Tame & Rea Board had the Hams Estate loop thoroughly cleaned at a cost of £5000. Sewage farms continued to spread downriver on both banks until a total of 2000 acres was in rotational use for sludge deposits by the turn of the century. But by then the bacterial filtration method of sewage treatment had been perfected. 'Saltley' Works were converted and Minworth Works constructed to carry out the new treatment, and the greater part of the farmland was sold.

Upper Rea improvements had stopped short at Lawley Street in 1893. Work continued downstream between 1897 and 1904: five years later the river bed was lowered under Duddeston Mill Road to prevent the flooding of that street. (It still happens occasionally, but this is due to the surface drains' inadequacy to cope with excessive rainflow into the dip).

Unemployed men were set to work between 1930 and 1934 on Tame widening to 70 feet and deepening by 4 - 5 feet downstream from the confluence, and further improving the Rea from Lawley Street northward.

The last works, between Saltley Viaduct and Watson Road (300 yards north of Aston Church Road) were carried out in 1941: two channels were then infilled, flow being concentrated in a deepened course (a former millrace) in Nechells, which then crossed beneath the Junction Canal to circuit the sewage works. So the taming of the rivers, begun in 1852 with the demolition of Duddeston millweir, was complete.

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