Water before 1934

Also click Water to choose from 10 articles telling the full story of how mains water was brought up to the hills, recollections of living here before mains water got here and the uproar when Fleet Street sentenced Lacey Green to death.

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Research by Joan West & Miles Marshall

MARCH 1934. WYCOMBE DISTRICT COUNCIL PLANS MAINS WATER In January 1934 there were drought conditions.   Wycombe Rural District Council was carting 25,000 gallons of water a day all over the area, just for domestic purposes.

MAINS WATER SCHEME By March the council had put forward a £66,000 scheme to supply over 80 square miles and 14,000 village people with fresh water

Research by Miles Marshall

NO TAP WATER BEFORE 1934

To enjoy all the clean water we want, at the turn of a tap, is such a commonplace amenity of present day living that we take it for granted, so it may surprise many residents to know that it is a luxury that has been enjoyed here for less than fifty years.   Until 1934, when the water mains first came along Pink Road, there was none available at all. Water had been collected from roofs and ponds. There was a well at Loosley Row, said to be 80 feet deep.

TANKS FOR RAINWATER FROM ROOFS but NOT FROM THATCH

Most Households in those days had some means of catching and storing rain water from the roofs; many had underground storage tanks for this purpose holding perhaps 4 – 5,000 gallons, which was pumped by hand to the kitchen or even up to a bathroom or loft if a hot-water system was installed.   But for many cottages, particularly those in thatched ones, would have relied on pond water for all domestic purposes.   Of course it had to be filtered or boiled for drinking and only the privileged few had any fresh drinking water.

1921 WATER FOR FARMS Throughout most of the summer of 1921 there was a severe drought.   Harry Floyd, then a young man of 15, had to drive a horse and cart carrying water barrels to Church Farm, Saunderton, to collect water from the brook for the animals on Stocken Farm, Lacey Green.

1921 WATER FOR FAMILIES The Rural District Council supplied a small amount of water (about two buckets a day) to each house in the village.

rare.   Of course the water was soft and free from “modern pollutants”.