Description and History of Site:-
The spring, while still in use, is now covered and culverted, so no surface features remain. In 1834, 'A Constant Reader' wrote to the Bradford observer: '...There is one evil which you have not yet pointed out, although it is one of the greatest in point of magnitude, and that is the want of a general supply of pure and wholesome water. In most towns where there are Water-works we find that they are sufficient to supply the wants of all the inhabitants, and if they are not, new powers are obtained to give this facility. But this is not the case with us. Here we have water-works which supply but one-third of the inhabitants of this populous town, and no efforts are made to enlarge them! Here, those who have the water from the works are under the control of an old woman, who pleases herself whether she turns the water on or not! How long this state of things is to continue I know not; but I think it is high time that this evil should be remedied, either by increasing the power of the present works, or by the formation of new ones.'

Up to this point, the supply of potable water to the inhabitants of Bradford, in so far as any was provided, fell to the 'Company of Proprietors of the Bradford Water Works' who had been in existence since 1744 conveying water through pipes from Brown Royd Hill (and later also from Haycliffe Hill) to a reservoir at the upper end of Westgate, on the northern margins of Bradford.

Newspaper correspondence in 1834, and a series of public meetings and deliberations in subsequent years, eventually led to the formation of the (private) Bradford Water Works Company in April 1839. This company formed the idea (from among a number of alternatives) of taking water from the Manywells spring. The necessary powers to progress the scheme were granted by an Act of Parliament, in 1842. The works were to involve the interception of water flowing from the spring, piping it to a storage reservoir at Chellow Dean, and then on to a service reservoir at Whetley Hill. The company was also obliged to construct a reservoir on the Hewenden Beck to compensate mill owners who would otherwise lose the use of the water from Manywells.

As John James, Bradford Historian, wrote in 1866: '.... The mill owners on Hewenden stream were, after much opposition on their part to the scheme, compensated for the diversion of the waters of the Manywells spring by a compensation reservoir (to contain eleven millions of cubic feet of water) on Hewenden, or Harden Beck, which impounds the flood waters for their use, near the point where the spring previously flowed into the beck. This spring is one of the most extraordinary in the kingdom. The quantity of water, which is good and pure, flows, on an average, at the rate of above half a million gallons a day.'

Some years later, an interesting legal case arose from this scheme. A Mr Pickles, the owner of the land through which the water flowed on the way to the site of the spring, planned and began work to divert and interrupt the flow of the waters, reportedly in an attempt to persuade the waterworks company to purchase his land at a somewhat (though on the face of it not excessively) inflated cost. Bradford took this matter to court, eventually to the House of Lords. In 1895, the case of 'Bradford v Pickles' finally found for the defendant. It was decided that since Pickles had the legal right to interfere with the water flow (while it was below his land it belonged to him), the fact that his actions might be solely motivated by an expectation of gain at the expense of another party (Bradford) was irrelevant, and could not make his actions unlawful. The finding, perhaps surprisingly, is relied upon to this day in similar cases.

Further Reading and References:-
James, J., Continuation and additions to the History of Bradford, and its parish., Longmans, London, 1866.
http://www.uniset.ca/other/cs5/1895AC587.html (Report of the arguments and ruling made in the House of Lords)
https://swarb.co.uk/mayor-of-bradford-v-pickles-hl-29-jul-1895/

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Key Words :- water supply spring reservoir compensation

Address :- Doll Lane , Cullingworth, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD13 5BN
Grid Ref :- SE 0719 3563
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.816902 , Long -1.892276
Local Authority :- City of Bradford
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site demolished or no longer extant
Site Condition :- Site cleared - no above ground remains visible
Record Date :- 26 August 2019

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Nick Nelson