City of Nottingham Water Department

The City of Nottingham Water Department (1912–1974), formerly the Nottingham Corporation Water Department (1880–1912), was responsible for the supply of water to Nottingham from 1880 to 1974. The first water supply company in the town was the Nottingham Waterworks Company, established in 1696, which took water from the River Leen, and later from springs at Scotholme, when the river became polluted. Other companies were set up in the late 18th century and in 1824, while in 1826 the Trent Water Company was established. They employed Thomas Hawksley as their engineer, who became one of the great water engineers of the period, and Nottingham had the first constant pressurised water supply system in the country. The various companies amalgamated in 1845, and Hawksley remained as the consulting engineer until 1879.

Nottingham is located on top of a huge layer of Bunter sandstone, and Hawksley masterminded plans to extract filtered water from this aquifer. The Park Hill or Sion Hill pumping station was the first to be built in 1850, but was abandoned in 1880 as the water was too hard, and there were fears of pollution from the General Cemetery. Bagthorpe or Basford Works followed in 1857, and as the town expanded, further works were built to the north. Bestwood Pumping Station opened in 1871. The pumping stations were steam powered, and Hawksley also constructed a number of reservoirs to store the water, the final one under his jurisdiction being at Papplewick, completed just before water supply was taken over by the Corporation in 1880.