Water Department

D-WA1 Reports on projected water works, 1813 - 1852 and undated;

D-WA2-4 Gorbals Gravitation Water Works Company records, 1845 - 1850;

D-WA5-7 Miscellaneous legal, technical and commercial records, 1807 - 1899;

D-WA8 Specification books, 1875 - 1900;

D-WA9 Applications for water meters, 1861 - 1918;

D-WA10 Record of households supplied with water outwith the city boundaries, 1916 - 1936;

D-WA11 Parliamentary papers, 1853 - 1907;

D-WA12-13 Reports and abstracts of account, 1855 - 1930;

D-WA14-17 Ledgers and other financial records, 1838 - 1927;

D-WA18 Engineers' letter books, 1858 - 1924;

D-WA19 General papers, 1854 - 1946;

D-WA20 Water analyses, Loch Katrine, 1905 - 1932;

D-WA21 Weather records, 1936 - 1967;

D-WA22 Photographs, c1875 - c1910;

D-WA23 Newcuttings books, 1845 - 1962;

D-WA24 Maps and plans, 1844 - 1944 and undated

D-WA25 Glasgow Corporation Hydraulic Power Supply, no date.

Some of this material naturally falls into the Section 'F13 Water Trust', but no merging of these accessions has yet taken place as this material is on deposit by another authority. Refer to F13 in using this list (documents prior to formation of Water Trust, 1855).

This collection does include some uncatalogued material.

By 1800 Glasgow's water supply was already inadequate. The first Glasgow Water Company, formed under an Act of Parliament in 1806 (46 Geo. III, c.136), already had a small-scale financial involvement by the town council. A rival Cranstonhill Water Company followed in 1808 (48 Geo. III, c.44). Only the first was a commercial success and neither was adequately capitalised. After prolonged disputes the two merged in 1838 (1 & 2 Vict., c.86). Further municipal involvement was long considered, but was delayed by the creation of a third company, formed in 1846 to supply the southern suburbs of the city (Gorbals Gravitation Water Company Act 1846, 9 & 10 Vict., c.347). The inadequacies of the supply continued to be complained of, and the council intervened in the early 1850s. The Glasgow Corporation Waterworks Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict., c.118), provided for the companies to be bought out, and for the Lord Provost, magistrates and council to be appointed Water Commissioners, with powers to bring in a water supply on a much more ambitious scale from Loch Katrine in Perthshire. The executive powers of the Commissioners were delegated to a Water Committee and to what was in effect a normal department of the council, but the Water Commission was only formally merged with the council in 1895 (Glasgow Corporation and Police Act 1895, 58 & 59 Vict., c.143).

By that date, the Loch Katrine works constructed in the 1850s had already proved inadequate, and work was in progress to duplicate them, with a new reservoir and new aqueducts. The former was completed in 1896, the latter in 1901. Loch Katrine remained the basis of the city’s water supply, with further extensions in 1919, involving a further raising of the water level. In 1965 the Glen Finglas Reservoir was inaugurated, to bring additional supplies to the loch. In May 1968 the newly formed Lower Clyde Water Board became the water authority for the city and acquired all the assets of the department (Water (Scotland) Act 1967, c.78).

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