By Harry Mottram: It was the year the National Grid was completed and the classic London Underground map designed by Harry Beck was first published – and the year Hitler came to power – and it was the year work began to build Cheddar Reservoir. Yes, 1933 and all that – the country was still recovering from the economic slump triggered by the Wall Street Crash of 1928 but at the same time post First World War the country was entering the modern age of newly built council houses, BBC Radio, Jazz music, fast motor cars and even air travel – and above all modern domestic appliances which needed, gas, electricity and most of all clean running water for washing and flush lavatories for the expanding population. Hence the need for Cheddar Reservoir.
South West Water owned by the Devon based Pennon Group (who bought Bristol Water in 2023) have indicated they plan to build a second reservoir at Cheddar by or near the existing one which was constructed in a very different age. If their plans go ahead as expected this year, then it will become the largest infrastructure project in Somerset outside of Hinkley Point C with a completion date of 2030. Thousands of trucks, bulldozers, diggers and heavy plant will be employed to create the reservoir south of the current one with a price tag of at least £2.8 billion. Hundreds of contractors will be employed, and some local firms will benefit, although the noise, disruption, traffic and dusk will not make all residents happy.
When the first reservoir was constructed, heavy plant was in its infancy, so manpower was vital for much of the work. A train line was built as a spur off the Cheddar Valley line which took in materials to the site located where the yacht club is located today. A steam powered crane and shovel were also employed to help with the labour while it was pick and shovel that largely ruled the day. Around 400 men with many from the Irish Free State (who even brought with them their own priest) took on the work with many billeted locally in homes, pubs and boarding houses while some stayed in huts close to the site. Work began in April 1933, and it took five years of digging and lining the strawberry shaped reservoir to be completed with around a year to fill it starting in 1937 – less than two years before the outbreak of World War Two.
If we go back to the years before the reservoir, Cheddar had been a key part of the supply ‘grid’ for nearly 100 years due to the water cascading out from the bottom of the Gorge from the Mendips. In 1914, it was decided to take water from the River Yeo in Cheddar to increase supplies not only for the growing population in the Cheddar Valley but further afield as well. Domestic homes increasingly wanted water on tap plus water for toilets and bathrooms rather than the traditional use of wells. In early 1922 the dams and intake in the Gorge next to the former Cliff Hotel were built and a pipeline laid to a pumping station in Lower New Road. Eventually, though, a reservoir was needed to make better use of water from the springs and so geological work commenced with the current site chosen due to the underlying geology and location close to the pumping station.
McAlpine were the main contractor for the Bristol Waterworks Company, and work began in April 1933, with an estimated total cost of £450,000. The company had actually wanted to build a much larger reservoir, or a second one as well, but funds did not allow. Work was suspended from October 1935 to March 1936 owing to incessant rain and the reservoir was only finally commissioned in 1938 just months before the war. A huge saucer like depression was scooped out of the fields to the west of Holwell Lane with the hedges and trees taken out along with Barrow Wood Farm. The soil and stone removed was piled into a huge embankment to contain the water reaching as high as 50ft on the Wedmore side but lower on the Mendip side keeping the circular path around the reservoir level. A low wall rimmed the perimeter with survey points every 25 yards or so marked by numbers of 0-116 – still visible today. The sides of the reservoir were lined with concrete slabs with a base of yellow clay. When the water levels are low in the summer the sticky clay is exposed revealing how comparatively shallow the reservoir is ranging from a depth in winter of a couple of feet on the concrete foreshore on the north and east side to more than 25 feet in the deeper sections on the southern side.
The reservoir was eventually to contain 1,350 million gallons of raw river water from the Mendips pumped in from three inlets – two by the towers on the Axbridge and Cheddar sides and a smaller one on the south side which is only rarely used. It is approximately two and a quarter miles in circumference and when constructed was out of bounds to all but the employees of Bristol Water with two entrances – one off Cheddar Road in Axbridge and the other at Sharpham Road on the Cheddar Side. One of the outcomes of all the excavations were piles of clay soil to the south of the reservoir which later became known as The Clay Pits beloved by local children and when scooped out were used for fishing – and still are. Activities such as angling, sailing and general access for the public to walk, jog and cycle around the reservoir along with the yacht club had to wait until later.
Two years after completion World War Two began. By 1940 regular bombing raids by the Luftwaffe were taking place targeting Bristol, some towns in Somerset and Cardiff docks. The German aircraft used Cheddar Reservoir as part of their navigation since it was so pronounced in the landscape. One night a number of bombs were dropped across the valley with the nearest ones landing near to Wedmore where the golf club is now. Whether they were aimed at the reservoir we don’t know but it was common practice for the Luftwaffe to jettison unused bombs on their way home dropping them on anything they could see as they left their target area. If they had hit the reservoir banks then a disaster could have happened with a wall of water washing down the valley – so a lucky escape.
On completion some small parts of machinery were initially left behind at the site – which took some time to be cleared away – along with the siding off the Cheddar Valley Railway. The huts came down and slowly the reservoir was filled with water as the workers packed up and left. For four heady years the pubs and shops of Axbridge and Cheddar had seen a boost in trade with some local women marrying the workers – thus adding no doubt to the gene pool of Somerset. One thing that didn’t happed was the second reservoir – World War Two put pay to that – and so some 88 or so years later we await news of Cheddar Reservoir Two and the start date for its construction.
Harry Mottram
Axbridge Review is edited by Harry Mottram and is published for the interest of himself and fellow residents.
Harry is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube etc
Email:harryfmottram@gmail.com
Website:www.harrymottram.co.uk
Pictures: These photos were sent to me by a relative of one of the main contractors when I published my own magazine The Strawberry Line Times – and ran articles on the building of the first reservoir. They are only for use to illustrate the history of Cheddar Reservoir.
This article is to be published in Retrospect – the local history society’s newsletter so make sure you join the society so as to get a copy. Visit https://kingjohnshuntinglodge.co.uk/contact_us
You must be logged in to post a comment.