2-982-204 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Worthing Water-Works, 1858. '...one of the most favourable and successful examples of sanitary works executed under the authority of the Public Health Act...as the population [of Worthing] increased, its drainage, which from the beginning was without plan or arrangement, necessarily proved deficient. The sewers poured out their contents upon the shore, rendering a resort to the beautiful Esplanade during the ebb of the tide exceedingly disagreeable...the water-tower, engine-house, and chimney-shaft...were designed by Robert Rawlinson, Esq., C.E. The water-tower has a total elevation of 110 feet...Within the adjoining engine-house a well has been sunk in the chalk to a depth of seventy feet...From it gushes an abundant supply of the purest water, 143 degrees of hardness, which is lifted by the engine into a cast-iron tank at the top of the tower, and thence distributed into all the houses in the town. The tank...contains 110,000 gallons'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.