1934 Lacey Green Water in the News

Also click Water to choose from 10 articles telling the full story of how mains water was brought up to the hills and recollections of living here before mains water got here.

IN THE NEWS 1934     WHEN FLEET STREET SENTENCED LACEY GREEN TO DEATH

It was New Year in 1934 when Lacey Green hit the headlines in the national newspapers. It was a notoriety that the village did not want, for Fleet Street proclaimed that seven people had died over the Christmas period because of the pollution of water supplies during the drought.

SEVEN VILLAGERS DIE. The facts pointed that way because six villagers had died over Christmas and another soon afterwards and there was a severe drought in this part of Bucks. But the seven people had died through natural causes and in any case they were aged 82, 81 three just under 70 and one 60; true one man had died in his thirties but he had had pneumonia.

INHABITANTS INDIGNANT. A Bucks Free Press reporter toured the “village of death” and found the inhabitants indignant at the Fleet Street stories for there was no serious water shortage at Lacey Green, nor Loosley Row and many villagers still opposed the water scheme being urged upon them by Wycombe Rural District Council because the rain water that ran off their roofs and into the tanks, their sole source of supply, was pure when drawn as any they would wish to drink. The local merchant Mr. George Floyd, who at 70 could still lift a sack of coal with the next man, stated, “My mother and father drank water from the same tank for 70 years and they lived until they were 95.”

CRYSTAL CLEAR WATER. The water from the tanks was crystal clear, and Lacey Green might well be described as an oasis in a land of drought. Most tanks in the village were full up. And so they were at Loosley Row. It was just a coincidence that so many villagers had died within such a short time.

The Free Press discovered that no one was in favour of the new water supply.

Was it because they would be charged for the “new fangled” tap water or just resistance to change? No matter. Piped water was laid on to the villages in 1934 and life was never the same again.   However it was quite a long time before all the people connected their homes to the new supply.

Editor's comment

"It is difficult to imagine a school where, if their tank ran dry, the children had to get a drink of water from the pub opposite and at home your water was from an underground tank with a pump on top, and don’t forget to keep some water back to “prime” the pump, not to mention keeping your gutters clean. And your privy was down the garden with its one, two, even three, seater.