As this unseasonal September heatwave looks set to continue for the next few days, I revisit September 1929 when Swindon was hit by a devastating water shortage.
Additional inspectors were assigned to locate cases of wilful misuse, and Mr Thompson, Borough Engineer and Water Engineer, said it was the duty of the housewife to be sparing in the use of water, adding somewhat threateningly “if she is not she will have to be taught how to be sparing.” A total ban was imposed upon the use of water in the cemetery.
Water Shortage
Alarming Situation in Swindon: Utmost Economy Needed
News regarding the position of Swindon’s water supply is of an alarming nature. During the week-end there was a most serious drop in the amount of water available.
The townspeople have already effected some economies in their usage of water; but it is now vitally necessary that the present consumption should be cut down by at least another 50 per cent.
It is therefore the immediate duty of everyone to use only half the amount of water they have been doing. For the present the use of baths should certainly be given up, and their place taken by an ordinary sponge-down with the minimum quantity of water.
Housewives can do much to help. They must look on water as a precious fluid, and cut down their usage to the least possible quantity.
Every step is being taken by the Borough Engineer and his staff to augment the supply; but the co-operation of the general public is essential.
Mr J.B.L. Thompson, the Borough Surveyor and Water Engineer, tells the North Wilts Herald that the fall in the available supplies which has taken place over the week-end is unprecedented, and has forced the Water Committee to reconsider the whole position.
Unless still more drastic economies are made, Swindon is going to be faced with a very unpleasant situation.
The use of water for certain specified purposes must, under heavy penalty, be absolutely discontinued. Leakages, however small, must be reported at once.
Warning to Wasters
The Borough Engineer has been instructed to employ further inspectors to locate cases of wilful misuse.
Official Notice
In an official notice, signed by the Town Clerk, to be distributed to householders, it is stated:
“Owing to a rapid and unprecedented decrease during the past two days in the water supplies available in the well belonging to the corporation, the attention of all consumers of water is drawn to the urgent necessity of preventing waste and of strictest economy in the use of water.”
It is further stated that water must not be used for the purpose of washing foot-pavements, yards, cars or garage floors, nor used on allotments, tennis courts, bowling green, cricket patches or gardens.
Prosecutions will be instituted where there is evidence of waste of water.
A Critical Three Months
“It will be the end of December before we can hope for the wells to recover,” said the Borough Surveyor to a North Wilts Herald representative.
“The next three months are going to be very precarious from the point of view of obtaining water sufficient to keep the town going.
“Unless people limit their consumption by at least 50 per cent, it will mean that as a last resource the town will have to be shut off from the regular supply and that we shall have to draw it from certain points.”
Meanwhile wells at Ogbourne continue to diminish, and though water is being drawn from the GWR supply at Kemble the time will come when this supply must stop.
It is the duty of the housewife to be sparing in the use of water. If she is not – to use Mr Thompson’s words – “she will have to be taught how to be sparing.”
Owing to the acute shortage, the Swindon Corporation have stopped the use of water for growing plants in the Swindon Cemetery. Water has now been banned from any kind of use in the Cemetery.
The supply in the Highworth parish at present is fairly satisfactory, this being attributed mainly to the fact that some two or three years ago the district council constructed auxiliary works at Eastrop.
North Wilts Herald, Friday, September 13, 1929.
Radnor Street Cemetery 