Industrial and environmental historians often write about gasworks and waterworks and all the public utilities which make our lives more comfortable but very rarely mention the underground which services carry the water, gas and electricity to our homes and workplaces. We also never hear about how these mains were dug and work done on them – this article also tells a story the digging of about one of them.
There are obviously several different systems in the pipes under our feet. Probably one of the best setof underground pipes known to local people is the sewage system and I wrote a bit about this recently in an article about the Pumping Station in Greenwich High Road. I mentioned the main sewer which runs under a footpath from Plumstead Station down to Crossness Pumping Station. Before it gets to Plumstead there is a complicated system which brings together all the sewers from South London to the Greenwich Pumping Station, with another junction at what I understand is a large waterfall near Charlton football ground. I remember being told by staff at Greenwich that these tunnels are ‘better than cathedrals’.
As far as water supply is concerned we have some interesting historical remains in the conduit systems which downhill run through Greenwich Park. These consist of brick passages through which the water would have passed. What we see today are said to be from the 17th and 18th centuries and built for Greenwich Hospital. They are said to be “built of brick, and are generally about 4 to 6 feet high and about 2 feet to 4 feet wide
The earliest water supply to the public in our area came from the Kent Well at Brookmills from 1701.I don’t know if any remains of pipework for early water supply from this site have been found by archaeologists and I would be interested know.. I guess the original pipework would have been like that used for the 17rth century New River where hollowed out elm trunks were fitted together. I have seen these at ChirkCastle, and elsewhere. By the way, if you don’t know the New River you can see it running through Enfield and Tottenham– but it’s not a river and it’s certainly not new
While elm trunksseemto have worked for water supply they weren’t suitable to transmit gas and it is said that the earlies gas works used old gun barrels linked together.However gas companies needed to lay more and more mains and manufacturers of iron pipes began to increase production.
All of these pipes had to be laid in the street. When we read about the number of employees of a gas or water works always remember that many of these were out in the streets digging and laying the mains.I found a long description of how the gas main was laid between east Greenwich and Downham – and it all sounded quite exciting, and at the end the team of men who dug the main felt that they had really achieved something
In the 1920s a vast amount of housing construction was undertaken on the Kent and London borders by the London County Council – this included the 1923 Downham estate. Although the Bell Green Gas Works was nearer to Downham the South Metropolitan Company deemed that gas should be taken there from their great new gas works at East Greenwich. Thus a mighty main was built from Greenwich to Downham, conceived and constructed on a heroic scale. Nothing like it had been laid since the new mains were laid into Tunnel Avenue. What is more the new pipes were to be of a special sort never before seen in London.
The new main started as a branch from the pipes between Greenwich and the Old Kent Road near what was then the Royal Naval College in Romney Road. Traffic there could not be diverted and in the 1920s tramlines ran along main roads. Trams couldn't be diverted around holes in the road so more special arrangements had to be made. In Romney Road the new main was put into a steel tube under the tram tracks, cable ducts and a sewer and they must do all of this without interrupting the gas supply. The new branch main was inserted in July 1927 and a pipe laid across Romney Road into Park Row and from there it went uphill and into Greenwich Park. Summer passed into autumn and winter and the work proceeded.
The next obstacle at the end of Park Row was the London and Greenwich Railway which could not be interrupted. The gas main had to go into the 2'9" between the road and the railway tunnel and a special rectangular steel structure had to be built.
The new gas main then turned east from Park Row and into Greenwich Park. At Maze Hill there was time for some geological observation. In the trench people could see the outcropping of the Thanet Sands. This is the first layer above the chalk and here it comes to the surface as the ground slopes away towards the river. The new main would intersect four geological formations on its way to Downham and provide a practical geological lesson for anyone who followed the line of thetrench.
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Half way up Maze Hill on the corner of Westcombe Park Road is Vanbrugh Castle built soon after 1718. Outside the castle they dug up an 'artistically shaped wine bottle about 110 years old', 'an ointment pot stated by the British Museum authorities to be of Delft Ware made in Southwark in the 17th century; and 'an old medicine bottle dated January 25th 1754 with 'by the King's Royal Patent granted to Robert Turlington for his invented balsam of Life'. Does anyone know what happened to these finds?
As they reached Blackheath in the trench a layer of pebbles known as the Blackheath Beds could be seen in the trench. These beds cap the high ground here. The gas workers had hoped to find Roman remains as they crossed the line of Watling Street but nothing was to be seen.
The trench then crossed the Heath, went down Pond Road and crossed the
railway line from Blackheath Station. Beyond this, at the end of Pond Road, the
main passed 'the massive foundations of an old Manor House'. This was
Wricklemarsh House built by Sir Gregory Page in the 1720s, described as a
'palace' to the designs of John James.
The house was demolished in the 1780s.
The gas engineers reported visits to their trenches by 'local
antiquaries' keen to see the remains of this famous, if short lived, house’.
The main then turned west and a short distance further on at the junction of Blackheath Park and Morden Road you could see In the trench could be seen all together three of the geological formations of the area – the Woolwich beds of gravel and shingle, the Blackheath beds of pebbles, and London Clay.
It is not particularly clear which way the main continued from the Morden Road junction to cross Blackheath Park, and end up at Lee High Road, but once there they met the trams and again steel tube had to be laid under the tram tracks. There were many more pipes and cables under the road here and eventually they inserted a concrete raft to support two gas mains and a water main. This took a long time and caused a considerable delay.
The next obstacle was the River Quaggy in Manor Lane Lee. This crosses the road here before going into the ponds in the Park at the back of the Manor House. Again the Woolwich beds could be seen here in the trenches as a formation of gravel, sand and shells. A tunnel was built between the concrete bridge abutments and the river bed and the gas main went under the stream through a special steel tube. They dug deep into the clay because they thought that the main would be continually soaked with water. Thenanotherpebble bed was found which included a previously undetected 'mineral spring’ giving out 6,000 to 10,000 gallons of water an hour. Two pumps dealt with the problem until the water could be channelled away and a 'ferruginous' deposit was left on the road whereit had run.
Then the railway further up Manor Road had to be crossed. This was easy since the line is on an embankment but 'the greatest care had to be exercised' to make sure the railway bridge would not move because of the gas main. Round the corner in St. Mildred's Road another railway bridge caused even more problems. The road was a bus route and special heavy duty bridges had to be built to carry the buses along with special traffic arrangements agreed with the police while work went on.
As themain was dug across Hither Green and Catford to the Bromley Roadengineers found a lot of London clay. This was not easy to deal with and as winter came the clay became frozen and unworkable. As it got near Christmas they were unable to work at all and the frozen trench could not be continued until better weather came.
When spring came they had reached the Bromley Road where were trams and once again a steel tube had to be constructed under the tram tracks. At the junction of Bellingham Road and Bromley Hill the main reached a control point where the pressure of the gas was regulated. Then the line of the main turned west and continued into Bell Green Gas Works. It turns out that South Metropolitan gas from East Greenwich was in fact supplying the South Suburban's Bell Green Gas Works to be sent on to Downham from there.
To get to Bell Green they had againtocross the railway at Bellingham Station. To get the main across, with no disturbance to the trains,they had to rebuild the railway bridge. The railway company also said that they must allow for two additional railway lines. There were also problems with the third rail of the electrified railway and special timbers had to be used as an insulator. The main was covered with 'bituminous material' to 'protect it against damage from stray electrical currents’. They then carried on under the Bellingham Estate.
At Bell Green the main had reached its destination – a meter house just outside the gas works. It had then to be tested for leaks with ordinary air. This was undertaken from Bell Green and the main was finally filled with gas from East Greenwich on 10th July 1928. The work had taken just a year to complete.
.And that’s how one line of gas pipes was laid from Greenwich to Downham!
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