Rural Victorian sewage works filter beds

[Booking Hall]

Hi, does anyone have any information about the design, construction and operation of a small rural sewage works built in the Victorian era, particularly with regard to the settlement tanks and filter beds (not the circular ones we see nowadays, but long rectangular ones like on the plan below), or can point me in the direction of such information? Thanks.

[IWCR]

These  could  literally  be  a  Reed  Bed.

Primary  settlement  in  the small  tanks  shown.  these would  be  worked  in  sequence  with  a  "full"  one  being  isolated  for  cleaning,  the solids  being  removed for  farmland  manure.

Dirty  water  then  through  into  what  is  basically  an  area  of  marshland  with  reeds,  this  strains / cleans  to  some  extent  with  a  large  wetted  surface area  for  bacteria  to  digest  the  waste.  The  run-off  then  going  into  the  brook.

With  this  and  the  dye  works  on  the  right  the  state  of  the  brook  would  not  be  good. 

 

Pete

[AberdeenBill]

Some light reading here... https://archive.org/details/sanitaryenginee00woodgoog        There are dozens(!) of similar books on archive.org 

 

Bill

[John_Miles]

They are correctly called percolating filter although no fitration takes place, instead the stones ,called media, provide a home for various life forms which chomp on the sewage. The stones are about fist size. The filters should be preceded by an inlet works which contains amongst other things a Venturi flume. Next come settling tanks which are square in plan and set in the ground, there are at least two of these. The filters follow these and they should be around 2m deep and not too large. Again there should be at least two. The filters are followed by further settling tanks which look like the first ones. There will also be a small building (usually brick) which houses a pumping station and in older works (pre-1970s) there would be sludge drying beds which were large flat areas where the sludge from the settling tanks was left to dry - you can imagine how well this worked in winter. These days the sludge is removed by tanker. If possible it would be arranged so that everything would work by gravity. 

 

I started my career as a Civil Engineer designing small rural sewage works.

[John_Miles]

The above plan has Trawden Brook - is this near Laneshaw Bridge?

[Booking Hall]

These  could  literally  be  a  Reed  Bed.

Primary  settlement  in  the small  tanks  shown.  these would  be  worked  in  sequence  with  a  "full"  one  being  isolated  for  cleaning,  the solids  being  removed for  farmland  manure.

Dirty  water  then  through  into  what  is  basically  an  area  of  marshland  with  reeds,  this  strains / cleans  to  some  extent  with  a  large  wetted  surface area  for  bacteria  to  digest  the  waste.  The  run-off  then  going  into  the  brook.

With  this  and  the  dye  works  on  the  right  the  state  of  the  brook  would  not  be  good. 

 

Pete

Thanks for your reply Pete, I hadn't considered that it could have been a reed bed, so that's food for thought!

[Booking Hall]

Some light reading here... https://archive.org/details/sanitaryenginee00woodgoog        There are dozens(!) of similar books on archive.org 

 

Bill

Many thanks for this Bill, it's a fascinating book and the diagrams will certainly help us to create a 'convincing' scene.

[Booking Hall]

They are correctly called percolating filter although no fitration takes place, instead the stones ,called media, provide a home for various life forms which chomp on the sewage. The stones are about fist size. The filters should be preceded by an inlet works which contains amongst other things a Venturi flume. Next come settling tanks which are square in plan and set in the ground, there are at least two of these. The filters follow these and they should be around 2m deep and not too large. Again there should be at least two. The filters are followed by further settling tanks which look like the first ones. There will also be a small building (usually brick) which houses a pumping station and in older works (pre-1970s) there would be sludge drying beds which were large flat areas where the sludge from the settling tanks was left to dry - you can imagine how well this worked in winter. These days the sludge is removed by tanker. If possible it would be arranged so that everything would work by gravity. 

 

I started my career as a Civil Engineer designing small rural sewage works.

That's an excellent, and succinct, explanation for us to work to John, many thanks.

[Booking Hall]

The above plan has Trawden Brook - is this near Laneshaw Bridge?

Well spotted John, it is indeed. We (Pendle Forest Model Railway Society) are building an EM layout based on the proposed-but-never-built branch from Colne to Trawden. Part of the scenery through which the line will run on its approach to the station would have taken it past the sewage works, of which almost no trace now remains, the plant having been demolished sometime after 1947 and housing now occupies the site. The only remnant is this inscribed stone tablet now built into the perimeter wall of the housing development, which obviously came from the former buildings. The giveaway clue is the appearance of the name of the contractors, Ducketts, who were a firm of sanitary engineers in Burnley, not very far away. Although we haven't got much space, we hope to be as authentic as we can in modelling what once existed, hence the question.

[Pacific231G]

They are correctly called percolating filter although no fitration takes place, instead the stones ,called media, provide a home for various life forms which chomp on the sewage. The stones are about fist size. The filters should be preceded by an inlet works which contains amongst other things a Venturi flume. Next come settling tanks which are square in plan and set in the ground, there are at least two of these. The filters follow these and they should be around 2m deep and not too large. Again there should be at least two. The filters are followed by further settling tanks which look like the first ones. There will also be a small building (usually brick) which houses a pumping station and in older works (pre-1970s) there would be sludge drying beds which were large flat areas where the sludge from the settling tanks was left to dry - you can imagine how well this worked in winter. These days the sludge is removed by tanker. If possible it would be arranged so that everything would work by gravity. 

 

I started my career as a Civil Engineer designing small rural sewage works.

Excellent information John and just goes to reinforce the truism that in the 19th Century civil engineers probably saved more people from disease than doctors and continue to be vital to public health.

I have one question, this probably wouldn't apply to rural installations but to what extent were light railways used in Victorian sewage and water treatment works? I know of one near Watford that connected a waterworks with the Rickmansworth branch but were they much used internally?

Edited April 29, 2018 by Pacific231G

[Andy Hayter]

 

With  this  and  the  dye  works  on  the  right  the  state  of  the  brook  would  not  be  good. 

 

Pete

 

I think you will find that reed beds are actually very efficient (several villages here use them before discharge into the local rivers).  The dye works is however another matter - or perhaps madder.

[sir douglas]

wakefield filter beds under construction in 1910

[Nearholmer]

Light railways were used for all sorts of purposes in sewage works, ranging from hauling coal inwards to pumping stations (the one near Watford was quite long, and for this), through carrying sand and graded stone (and I think coke and slag, which have huge surfac3 area for microbes to live on) to filters and digesters, and carrying dried sludge from beds to either tips or export.

 

Some of the systems were very extensive, and some were steam locomotive worked, notably those around Manchester and Birmingham.

 

Some remained in use until quite recently, there may even by short bits in use today and I remember a truly grand day out in the early 1980s visiting the huge network at Coleshill and Minworth near Birmingham. One quirky sprig of line there served a destructor furnace where indigestible solids were burned at very high temperature, the resultant ash being used in breeze-block making IIRC. The most notable feature of this railway was that there were tomato plants growing wild all over the place - the seeds pass through the entire process unharmed, in fact it improves the germination rate, which is possibly a useful gardening tip. Photos here http://www.ingr.co.uk/minworth.html

 

And, one of the steamers http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/misc_indust085.htm

 

Kevin

Edited April 29, 2018 by Nearholmer

[009 micro modeller]

Does the unusual Solva vehicle shown here still operate?

[Nearholmer]

I think, but am not certain, that Solva has closed. The one that might still be in use is in the Mole Valley in Surrey, where there is/was a fairly modern system supplied by Alan Keef IIRC to carry covers that are rolled out across filter beds to reduce evaporation in hot weather.

[John_Miles]

Excellent information John and just goes to reinforce the truism that in the 19th Century civil engineers probably saved more people from disease than doctors and continue to be vital to public health.

I have one question, this probably wouldn't apply to rural installations but to what extent were light railways used in Victorian sewage and water treatment works? I know of one near Watford that connected a waterworks with the Rickmansworth branch but were they much used internally?

 

Quite a lot in the larger works although I have to admit, I'm not sure what they were used for. Some sewage works were huge. IIRC Minworth which serves most of Birmingham and part of the Black Country is around 800 acres. Just read the above post, sorry to duplicate Nearholmer's post. Another interesting thing about Minworth was it digested some of the sludge which produced, amongst other things, methane which was used to drive generators.

 

In response to the Trawden post, my paternal grandmother came from Laneshaw Bridge, grandfather from Colne.

Edited April 30, 2018 by John_Miles

[009 micro modeller]

I think, but am not certain, that Solva has closed.

If so what has happened to the weird railtruck thing as I think this was a unique vehicle? I was under the impression (suggested by photos posted online from a couple of years ago) that it was technically still open but has only ever been used for occasional maintenance anyway.