Wythall History Society

Kenn Godfrey gave a very interesting talk, 'Water to Birmingham', with slides of the original sketches made by George Yourdi, the engineer appointed in 1893 to master-mind this gigantic operation, which took 12 years to complete.

This meant flooding the Elan Valley in Wales and securing ownership of 70 square miles of the watershed, for which only affected landowners were financially compensated.

Tenant farmers and smallholders were evicted without recompense, some undoubtedly having to go into the workhouse.

Birmingham, like other cities, had its packed slums with people living in back to back houses using wells polluted by open sewers and this project brought clean water to them.

There were also photographs of the families who became involved, the Irish navvies, who did the necessary hard manual work, as well as the engineers and others who worked on the project.

In giving the talk, Kenn gave credit to a retired former employee of Birmingham City Council Public Relations Department, Rita Morton, from whose book on the subject most of the information and anecdotes came.

She had also kindly allowed him to copy the pictures onto the slides.

Next month's meeting, 'Echoes of a Bygone Age' is on Friday, October 25, when former prisoner of war, Wolff Wahle, tells of life as a cobbler in Evesham at the turn of the 20th century.

The society meets at 7.30pm at Wythall House, Silver Street, and further details of their activities are available from secretary Val Lewis on 01564 822483 or their website www.wythallhistory.co.uk