Redmires Water Course

[Janus1938]

Does anyone remember the Water Course running from Redmires, under Crimicar Lane? It was built to carry clean water to Barker's Pool following following the devastating cholera epidemic of 1832.

[Eater Sundae]

Is it the water course that is there now, or a different one?

 

I cannot remember the exact route of the current one, except that it crosses Ivy Park Road just below its junction with Whitworth Road. It also runs close at the side of Tetney Road.

 

It is also in a (I think) stone culvert somewhere near the back of Lodge Moor Hospital.

 

I've now looked. If you zoom in using Google Maps satellite view, you can clearly see two walls very close together, running parallel to Brown Hills Lane, between it and Redmires Road. I believe the culvert runs between these.

[Greybeard]

Hi Janus, - in fact the first of the Redmires reservoirs wasn't completed until 1836. A private company, 'Sheffield Waterworks', obtained an act of parliament authorising its construction and an aqueduct to Hadfield Dam at Crookes in 1830, a little before the cholera outbreak.

 

As far as I know there was never an aqueduct to Barkers Pool, which was supplied by local springs and in any case was mainly used to flush the streets and not for a potable water supply.

 

The route of the aqueduct is clearly shown on the 1905 OS map Sheet 294 but I don't how much of it is still visible.

[Janus1938]

Hi Janus, - in fact the first of the Redmires reservoirs wasn't completed until 1836. A private company, 'Sheffield Waterworks', obtained an act of parliament authorising its construction and an aqueduct to Hadfield Dam at Crookes in 1830, a little before the cholera outbreak.

 

As far as I know there was never an aqueduct to Barkers Pool, which was supplied by local springs and in any case was mainly used to flush the streets and not for a potable water supply.

 

The route of the aqueduct is clearly shown on the 1905 OS map Sheet 294 but I don't how much of it is still visible.

 

Many thanks. As teenagers in the 1950s my school-friend and myself used to walk The Water Course.

[Morts]

I lived on Tetney Road in the 60's and climbed over the wall to the water course every night to recover footballs and cricket balls. Once tried to trace it back to Lodge Moor with my dad but as you say most of it goes underground. I do remember the remains of an aquaduct in the playing fields of what was Crosspool School adjacent to Manchester Road.

So, what exactly was it for?

[S10er]

From Tetney Road is runs somewhere under Whitworth Road and then to the underground reservoir on Carsick Hill Road nearly opposite the end of Carsick Hill View. It then runs along the line of the path which runs from the junction of Tom Lane/CHR/Stumperlowe Hall Road and the top of Slayleigh Lane (the path below Hallam School). It then appears again in the fields near Lodge Moor Road.

 

From Tetney Road rewards town I understand it runs under the KES/Tapton school fields, through the Tapton area then to the old water beds just below the Old Grindstone at Crookes.

[DAVID HOWSE]

hi i have a victorian photo of the watercourse on redmires road

it is for sale on ebay

dave

[Morts]

Give us a clue- what's it under on ebay?

[DAVID HOWSE]

hi im just listing it tonight

my ebay id is historicquest

[abroadhead]

So, what exactly was it for?

 

It fed the reservoirs in Crookes from the Redmires reservoirs on the edge of the city. The conduit, now mostly buried, where you said continued past Carsick Hall (though now I believe it flows into the stream running down through there to the Porter Brook) to the north-east, where it tipped into the cascade of dammed reservoirs that were once there.

 

Crookes Valley now contains just one reservoir - the Old Great Dam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_Valley_Park), but it was originally one of about 10. You can see the valley shape very clearly even today, running down through the Ponderosa (and you can hear the watercourse now in the sewer through this park, down Watery Street and on to the River Don through Port Mahon).

 

In addition to the water from the Redmires Conduit, the reservoirs would most likely have and continue to be fed by many of the local springs in Crookes and Upperthorpe areas. Similar springs fed the Barker's Pool, as another has previously mentioned. It is probable that when the Crookes Valley reservoirs were removed, they had to divert at least some of the flow from the Redmires Conduit into the Carsick Brook and probably reduce the amount flowing in it from the Redmires reservoirs themselves.