BUTTS WATER SUPPLY
Posted: 23 Apr 2012, 07:51
BUTTS WATER SUPPLY
[Sent to Geoff Shackleton 13/06/2009. The 'list' mentioned is the order book of the Universal Metallic Packing Company.]
Two things caught my attention in the lists. Order no 55 in 1907 for a barring engine.... Johnny Pickles told Newton that after he had finished work on the Brook Street engine he was put on the flywheel pit turning a replacement flywheel for one that had smashed during a runaway at Rawtenstall. It strikes me that if the flywheel burst there is a very good chance the barring engine was damaged as well and this could be part of the same job.
The other entry that intrigues me is the Bracewell list job in 1875, the 150hp beam driving the water pumps. We've talked about this before and your entry has triggered me off again. The first question is of course what was water pumped for? There are various clues in the early history of Butts Mill to suggest that it was always short of condenser water. The main source was of course the Calf Hall Beck which came into the premises at a level high enough to be available by suction for the engines. I have little doubt that the early engines installed there were not the most efficient at using cooling water for the condensers and that the demand per hp would be higher than the later engines. Indeed, when the Calf Hall Shed was built later the CHSC found it necessary to install a bore hole next to the lodge to supplement the flow of the Calf Hall Beck. Bracewell had already done what he could to improve the flow in the beck by building the Springs Dam upstream and doing some very controversial work on diverting water flows that should have naturally flowed into the Dark Hill Well at higher level. The CHSC did similar works later and got into trouble also, not least because a farmer's horse fell into the workings!
At an early stage Bracewell bought the Ouzledale Estate and when CHSC bought Butts they also became the owners. The thing about the Gillians Beck at Ouzledale is that it is at a higher level than the Calf Hall Beck at that point and in theory, a simple diversion via a large pipe could have solved the Butts water problem but of course he ran into trouble with the Mitchells/Slaters at Clough who had some sort of control over the water rights on the Gillians Beck. This surfaced again in 1914 when the New Mill of Nutter which became Bancroft was built because they had to install a by-pass round the Bancroft Lodge controlled by the Slaters at Clough. In addition there is good evidence that the Gillians water mill didn't use the obvious supply from Gillians Beck but used a smaller beck running down from Lane Bottoms.
There is one more tantalising piece of evidence that surfaced later in the CHSC minute books, it seems to refer to a Lea Water Flow Recorder jointly owned by them and the Slaters at Clough. For some reason both firms wanted measurement of flow in the Gillians Beck but it eventually became redundant.
The way my mind works at the moment is that if Bracewell came to an arrangement with Slaters to draw supplementary water for Butts off Gillians Beck at some point, and this could be a consequence of his buying Ouzledale, he wouldn't need a pump because that source, even if it was immediately behind Clough Shed was at a higher level than Butts and a pump would not be needed. There is a possibility that such an arrangement was reached with Slaters but for some reason broke down sometime around 1874. This would fit with what we know about William Bracewell's business methods, he would be an uneasy bedfellow in any agreement. Suppose there was a falling out sometime prior to 1874 and Bracewell had to look at another solution.
I think that for the next leap of imagination we have to assume that Slaters held the water rights on the Gillians Beck as far down as the confluence of the Gillians and Butts Becks which until modern times was in a small walled enclosure directly outside Butts Mill in the middle of what is now the road.
Wind forward to the 1930s. Harold Duxbury told me that when he was managing director of CHSC he inspected a vaulted space underground either under or near the mill. I always assumed that this was the lodge supplied by Calf Hall Beck but I begin to wonder….
Gillians Beck in Butts is at a lower level than the level of the Calf Hall Beck as it reaches Butts Mill. Even if he was allowed to access the water of the Gillians beck below Clough Mill there is no practical point for doing this until the beck exits the culvert under Wapping. This culvert was built in 1816 and so was there at this time. Suppose the circular structure in the middle of the road was some sort of access to a sump from which water could be pumped. There must have been a reason for it otherwise why build an access to the confluence point? If this was the reason for it there could have been a further advantage, the pumps, if they drew from here, would also be recirculating part of the Calf Hall water as well.
Prior to the sinking of the borehole at Calf Hall there were recurring problems with condenser water problems in summer. At one point they even installed a system for spraying water on the shed roof to cool it but soon gave up the experiment when they found out that they were in fact heating it! Calf Hall would be raising the temperature of the beck as it ran down to Butts and you’d think this would compound their problems but there is no mention of any problems after the Musgrave engine was installed. The question is of course was there a disadvantage we don’t know about. Were they still using the Bracewell pumps and using water from Gillians? I have found no mention of the engine and pumps in the minute books and if they had been scrapped there would have been a note.
All conjecture of course but it makes sense and until I trip over something else in the undergrowth I think this must be a plausible working theory. One thing is certain, throughout the entire history of the Bracewells at Earby and Barnoldswick there is a common thread of the need to control and this applied particularly to water rights and supply. I see no reason to doubt that they would go to quite extraordinary lengths to safeguard something as vital as cooling water for the condensers.
Best, S.
[Later, I found I had evidence that Bracewell had constructed a balance pond in the land below the chapel and this was at a high enough level to supplement Butts water. However, I have never found out the route of this water from the Clough Mill site to the pond. There must be a CI pipe but so far we have not found it.]
[Sent to Geoff Shackleton 13/06/2009. The 'list' mentioned is the order book of the Universal Metallic Packing Company.]
Two things caught my attention in the lists. Order no 55 in 1907 for a barring engine.... Johnny Pickles told Newton that after he had finished work on the Brook Street engine he was put on the flywheel pit turning a replacement flywheel for one that had smashed during a runaway at Rawtenstall. It strikes me that if the flywheel burst there is a very good chance the barring engine was damaged as well and this could be part of the same job.
The other entry that intrigues me is the Bracewell list job in 1875, the 150hp beam driving the water pumps. We've talked about this before and your entry has triggered me off again. The first question is of course what was water pumped for? There are various clues in the early history of Butts Mill to suggest that it was always short of condenser water. The main source was of course the Calf Hall Beck which came into the premises at a level high enough to be available by suction for the engines. I have little doubt that the early engines installed there were not the most efficient at using cooling water for the condensers and that the demand per hp would be higher than the later engines. Indeed, when the Calf Hall Shed was built later the CHSC found it necessary to install a bore hole next to the lodge to supplement the flow of the Calf Hall Beck. Bracewell had already done what he could to improve the flow in the beck by building the Springs Dam upstream and doing some very controversial work on diverting water flows that should have naturally flowed into the Dark Hill Well at higher level. The CHSC did similar works later and got into trouble also, not least because a farmer's horse fell into the workings!
At an early stage Bracewell bought the Ouzledale Estate and when CHSC bought Butts they also became the owners. The thing about the Gillians Beck at Ouzledale is that it is at a higher level than the Calf Hall Beck at that point and in theory, a simple diversion via a large pipe could have solved the Butts water problem but of course he ran into trouble with the Mitchells/Slaters at Clough who had some sort of control over the water rights on the Gillians Beck. This surfaced again in 1914 when the New Mill of Nutter which became Bancroft was built because they had to install a by-pass round the Bancroft Lodge controlled by the Slaters at Clough. In addition there is good evidence that the Gillians water mill didn't use the obvious supply from Gillians Beck but used a smaller beck running down from Lane Bottoms.
There is one more tantalising piece of evidence that surfaced later in the CHSC minute books, it seems to refer to a Lea Water Flow Recorder jointly owned by them and the Slaters at Clough. For some reason both firms wanted measurement of flow in the Gillians Beck but it eventually became redundant.
The way my mind works at the moment is that if Bracewell came to an arrangement with Slaters to draw supplementary water for Butts off Gillians Beck at some point, and this could be a consequence of his buying Ouzledale, he wouldn't need a pump because that source, even if it was immediately behind Clough Shed was at a higher level than Butts and a pump would not be needed. There is a possibility that such an arrangement was reached with Slaters but for some reason broke down sometime around 1874. This would fit with what we know about William Bracewell's business methods, he would be an uneasy bedfellow in any agreement. Suppose there was a falling out sometime prior to 1874 and Bracewell had to look at another solution.
I think that for the next leap of imagination we have to assume that Slaters held the water rights on the Gillians Beck as far down as the confluence of the Gillians and Butts Becks which until modern times was in a small walled enclosure directly outside Butts Mill in the middle of what is now the road.
Wind forward to the 1930s. Harold Duxbury told me that when he was managing director of CHSC he inspected a vaulted space underground either under or near the mill. I always assumed that this was the lodge supplied by Calf Hall Beck but I begin to wonder….
Gillians Beck in Butts is at a lower level than the level of the Calf Hall Beck as it reaches Butts Mill. Even if he was allowed to access the water of the Gillians beck below Clough Mill there is no practical point for doing this until the beck exits the culvert under Wapping. This culvert was built in 1816 and so was there at this time. Suppose the circular structure in the middle of the road was some sort of access to a sump from which water could be pumped. There must have been a reason for it otherwise why build an access to the confluence point? If this was the reason for it there could have been a further advantage, the pumps, if they drew from here, would also be recirculating part of the Calf Hall water as well.
Prior to the sinking of the borehole at Calf Hall there were recurring problems with condenser water problems in summer. At one point they even installed a system for spraying water on the shed roof to cool it but soon gave up the experiment when they found out that they were in fact heating it! Calf Hall would be raising the temperature of the beck as it ran down to Butts and you’d think this would compound their problems but there is no mention of any problems after the Musgrave engine was installed. The question is of course was there a disadvantage we don’t know about. Were they still using the Bracewell pumps and using water from Gillians? I have found no mention of the engine and pumps in the minute books and if they had been scrapped there would have been a note.
All conjecture of course but it makes sense and until I trip over something else in the undergrowth I think this must be a plausible working theory. One thing is certain, throughout the entire history of the Bracewells at Earby and Barnoldswick there is a common thread of the need to control and this applied particularly to water rights and supply. I see no reason to doubt that they would go to quite extraordinary lengths to safeguard something as vital as cooling water for the condensers.
Best, S.
[Later, I found I had evidence that Bracewell had constructed a balance pond in the land below the chapel and this was at a high enough level to supplement Butts water. However, I have never found out the route of this water from the Clough Mill site to the pond. There must be a CI pipe but so far we have not found it.]