Contaminated water

A case of contaminated water

The excellence and purity of the town’s water supply was so famous in past times that it sold worldwide and was even granted a Royal Warrant after orders were placed by Queen Victoria’s son, the Duke of Connaught. But it is a fact of life that standards slip when profits are at stake and so it was in the late 19th century when the Bourne Waterworks Company found itself in court for supplying water that was unfit for purpose.

The action was brought by Joseph Wyles and Company, owners of the Star Brewery in Manning Road, who sued for damages claiming negligence and breach of contract in that the water provided was not fit for brewing purposes and had resulted in a flood of complaints from their public houses and customers over the poor quality of beer they supplied. Eighty barrels had been returned and 104 deemed to be unfit and this resulted in a loss of custom and trade amounting to £294 [£32,000 in today’s values].

The case was heard at the Lincoln Assizes on Saturday 18th February 1888 when the brewery claimed that the water provided was both insufficient and unwholesome but the water company denied responsibility, claiming that it had not promised to supply water fit for brewing purposes.

The court was told that the brewery originally received water from an artesian bore known as the pinfold spring but this proved to be unacceptable in quality and so in November 1884, a new main was laid to the brewery premises at a cost of £20 with both sides contributing towards the cost. It was also agreed that when the work completed, the pinfold spring would be cut off but by April 1887, the brewery found that some of its beer was bad. Mr Wyles said in evidence that he began to receive complaints and beer was returned to him. “It was thick and muddy and there was a peculiar smell about it”, he said. “As time went on, complaints came from the greater bulk of our customers and I thought it was the fault of the brewer who was given notice to leave as a result.”

The brewery subsequently engaged a man from the waterworks company to carry out an investigation into the pinfold bore where they found the water running and the stop cock which controlled the supply turned on which would have the effect of sending water from the bore into the brewery. “The water was totally unwholesome”, he said. “It was contaminated with organic matter. Further checks confirmed that when water from the spring was flowing the beer was bad and when the supply was stopped it was good.”

Samples were sent to various experts including the Medical Officer of Health for Bourne, Dr James Watson Burdwood. “The water stank abominably, like rotten eggs or cabbage water”, he told the court. He explained that there had also been many complaints from people living in the Eastgate area which also received water from this source but they refused to take it and went elsewhere. “The water in its then state is fit for nothing”, he said.

Evidence was also given by Dr G M Lowe, of Lincoln, who had analysed a sample from the pinfold spring sent to him by Mr Wyles. “In my judgement, it was not fit for domestic or brewing purposes in consequence of the large quantity of organic matter that it contained”, he said. “It would be likely to promote fermentation and would make the beer thick.”

Experts called by the water company included an official analyst from the Home Office, Dr Tidy, who claimed that the water from the pinfold bore was “one of the purest waters in the country”. Granville Sharpe, an analytical chemist from London, gave similar evidence saying: “The water is one of great organic purity and is suited for brewing and other domestic purposes. It would be difficult to find a purer water.”

Witnesses called on behalf of the brewery, however, gave a very different story and it soon became apparent that the water company was not being entirely honest. John Harrison, a local plumber formerly employed by them, said in evidence that at the end of 1884, the supply from the pinfold bore was cut off but at the end of 1886, in consequence of a scarcity of water, it was turned on again on the orders of Robert Mason Mills, chairman of the directors of the Bourne Waterworks Company, and “he was to say nothing about it”.

Unfortunately, the court was told that Mr Mills was unable to attend the hearing through illness and could not therefore be questioned in the witness box when he would have been asked whether John Harrison’s statement was correct. Instead, his evidence had been taken down in writing earlier and was read out to the court claiming that the pinfold bore was always an auxiliary supply and that the brewery had not complained about the water being unsuitable.

Summing up for the brewery, Mr J C Lawrance Q C said that the jury had to decide whether there was a contract or bargain with the water company by which the water should be supplied from the main and the pinfold bore cut off and if there was indeed such a contract, was it broken by the admission of water from the pinfold bore and was the difference between the waters such as to produce damage to the plaintiff.

The jury took 45 minutes to decide that there was and after a hearing lasting seven hours, the judge, Baron Pollock, ruled that damages assessed by an independent party for the supply of impure water would be awarded to the brewery and a sum of £225 [£24,000 in today’s values] was subsequently agreed.

Since then, it has been acknowledged that water from the pinfold bore sunk by the water company behind the Marquis of Granby public house in Abbey Road had a high contamination of iron and rotting vegetation, causing problems for the householders and businesses who used it. The Star Brewery became Bourne Brewery Ltd in 1898 and was taken over by Soames and Co Ltd in 1922. Brewing ceased in 1937 and the brewery buildings disappeared in 1965 to make way for the premises of Johnson Bros (Bourne) Ltd, the agricultural machinery engineers, but their site was vacated in 2005 and is now occupied by the retirement complex known as Browning Court.

The Bourne Waterworks Company was taken over by Bourne Urban District Council in 1927, control later passing to the South Lincolnshire Water Board then to the new Anglian Water Authority when it was formed in April 1974, becoming privatised in 1989 and is now known simply as Anglian Water.

Robert Mason Mills is generally credited with the commercial exploitation of Bourne’s natural water from underground springs after moving to Bourne in 1842 to become manager of a chemist’s shop in West Street. He eventually became a prosperous businessman and benefactor for the Abbey Church and the town, leaving a small fortune in money, property and a large art collection when he died in 1904, aged 85. It is known that he hankered after an honour from the Queen but it never came.