A mystery solved
Rosie MacGregor writes about the mystery of the springs and underground watercourses in Bradford on Avon.
The abundance of springs and underground watercourses in and around Bradford on Avon has a always been a bit of a mystery as they have never been accurately plotted. I did undertake a project on this back in the 1980s but it proved, contrary to the direction of water flow, something of an uphill struggle! My results were reported in a previous edition of Guardian Angel (No 14) back then and were instrumental in the decision to restore the Newtown Spout.
Given that we live in a limestone area it is hardly surprising that water will disappear and re-emerge in different places as it erodes the permeable rock. However, something very strange occurred last summer when the unfailing natural water supply to some ponds, garden taps, troughs, waterfalls and streams in properties below Newtown suddenly ceased as if a valve had been turned off. The Preservation Trust was consulted as these are so much an historic feature of the townscape. A gradual loss of water might have been expected during the hot weather -after all, the river was particularly low -but not such a sudden stop.
What we did know was that water to these properties comes from tanks in the Conduit House on Newtown, the site of the original Lady Well, via a network of pipes and conduits installed by the Methuen family in the 17th century. It is even suggested that some of this pipework dates back to Roman times. The mystery was finally solved after heavy rainfall when one of the tanks overflowed. It transpired that there was a temporary blockage in the Conduit House preventing water from entering the system. The blockage was removed and flow successfully restored!
