Newspaper records
Company formed
In 1863 the Jersey Waterworks Company was formed, with the blessing of the States and the Parish of St Helier. The company’s intention was to pump water from a large well to supply a small reservoir near Vicart Mill in what is now known as Waterworks Valley. On 29 September 1869 a grand inauguration ceremony was held at which the Lieut-Governor, Bailiff, Dean and Attorney-General all made speeches at a meal after the Lieut-Governor had turned the first sod.
But the supply from the well, even augmented by water from the valley stream, proved inadequate and the company went bankrupt in 1882, to be taken over by the Jersey New Waterworks Company.
The new company had a new policy. Wells were abandoned and a filtration plant was started at Millbrook in 1884, fed from the St Lawrence stream and then pumped to a service reservoir at Mont Felard.
First storage reservoir
Work started in 1895 on a 12 million gallon storage reservoir in the valley as demand for a piped supply began to grow steadily. Two years later three new sand filters were constructed for the purification plant.
A second storage reservoir – Dannemarche – was constructed in 1908-1909 further up the valley, adding another 28 million gallons to the storage capacity. The First World War slowed the growth in demand but a record year of low rainfall in 1921 prompted moves to seek more storage and in 1929 work began on the construction of Handois Reservoir further up the valley, more than doubling the total capacity to 90 million gallons.
This was followed by the creation of a second water treatment plant, at Handois, using the latest chemical treatment.
St Peter's Valley
Steadily growing demand led to a plant being constructed in St Peter’s Valley in 1934 so that the stream there could be used to increase supply. Water was pumped from a small reservoir at La Hague to Handois. A similar plant was constructed in Mourier Valley in 1939 to capture water from another stream. After the Second World War the island’s population, and its demand for water, began to grow rapidly, and not only did the mains network have to spread out to St Brelade, St Clement and other areas of new housing, but storage capacity and the actual supply of water extracted from streams by the existing plants would again prove inadequate.
Another storage reservoir was constructed in Grands Vaux; a new filtration plant was built at Handois; a new trunk main to St Helier was installed and other parts of the company’s network were upgraded. The total cost was in the region of £450,000, nearly 50 per cent more than the total spent on all the company’s facilities up to 1945.
But even this was not enough, and in May 1957 work started on the building of the largest reservoir yet, at Val de la Mare in St Ouen. In 1991 the latest reservoir was constructed at Queen’s Valley in the east of the island, despite enormous controversy over the flooding of another beautiful valley. A desalination plant at La Rosière began operation in 1970 and was converted from a sea water distillation plant to a reverse osmosis plant in 1999.
- Millbrook reservoir
- Dannemarche
- Handois
- Grands Vaux
- Val de la Mare
- Queen's Valley
- Desalination plant Added 2016
- Waterworks Valley pictures
Further reading
- The Water Supply of the Island of Jersey, Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise 1947
- This Water Business, Annual Bulletin 1959
- Jersey Water 2012 anniversary book
Links
Jersey New Waterworks Company website
The maintenance team with new motor cycles
Holding ponds in Waterworks Valley
Construction work in Waterworks Valley
An advertisement showing water rates in 1873
A quarterly account from 1900
Before mains water spread across the parishes, roadside wells and pumps were the main source of water for many country dwellers
Millbrook reservoir
Surveying the meadow before the reservoir was built
