City of Nottingham Water Department
The City of Nottingham Water Department was responsible for supplying Nottingham with water from 1880 to 1974. Before that, several private companies provided water, and after 1974 the duties were taken over by a regional authority.
How it started
- Water in Nottingham began with the Nottingham Waterworks Company in 1696, pulling water from the River Leen and nearby springs.
- By the early 1800s, river water became hard and polluted, so new pumping stations and storage were built.
- In 1826 the Trent Water Company was formed, and Thomas Hawksley, a renowned water engineer, designed Nottingham’s first constant pressurised water system at Trent Bridge (completed around 1831). This made Nottingham one of the first places in the country to have a continuous, pressurised water supply.
Mergers and new supplies
- By 1845, multiple companies supplying Nottingham were merged into the Nottingham Waterworks Company. Hawksley served as a consulting engineer for the merged company.
- To meet a growing city, several pumping stations and reservoirs were built in the mid-1800s. Notable sites included Park Hill (Sion Hill) pumping works, Belle Vue and Mapperley Hill reservoirs, Bagthorpe (Basford) Works, and Bestwood Pumping Station (completed 1871).
- Papplewick Pumping Station, built to tap groundwater from the Bunter sandstone, was completed just before the city took over the water supply in 1880.
Taking over by the city
- Nottingham’s expansion in the 19th century led the council to pursue taking control of the water supply. After years of planning and opposition from the private company, the Nottingham Corporation Water Department was formed on 25 March 1880.
- Nottingham became a city in 1897, and in 1912 the department was renamed the City of Nottingham Water Department.
Water to the Derwent Valley and beyond
- In 1899, Nottingham helped form the Derwent Valley Water Board with Derby, Leicester, Sheffield, and Derbyshire County to build reservoirs in the Derwent Valley.
- Howden Reservoir (completed 1912), Derwent Reservoir (1916), and Ladybower Reservoir (1945) supplied water to Nottingham, with use expanding from 1917 onward as filtration and treatment improved.
- Five more borehole stations were added after World War II, and pumping stations gradually switched from steam to electric power in the 1960s.
Other improvements and sites
- The city built additional reservoirs and pumping stations, including Church Wilne (1967) and Carsington Water (planning in the 1960s; dam completed in 1992).
- A major sewage and sewerage improvement program ran alongside water supply works, including the Stoke Bardolph sewage farm and later upgrades to pumping stations and aeration units.
End of the department and private era
- In 1974, under the Water Act 1973, responsibility for water supply and sewerage transferred to the Severn Trent Water Authority.
- In 1989, privatisation changed Severn Trent Water into a private company, while river quality and land drainage duties moved to the National Rivers Authority, later the Environment Agency.
- The Papplewick Pumping Station was recognized as an industrial monument in 1969 and later came under a management trust as water duties were handed to the regional authority.
Key points
- The Nottingham area sits on a large underground layer of Bunter sandstone, which provides clean, relatively soft groundwater used by many pumping stations.
- The shift from private to public ownership and then to private privatization shaped how Nottingham’s water and sewerage were managed for much of the 20th century.
- Papplewick and other pumping stations, along with Derwent Valley reservoirs, were central to Nottingham’s reliable water supply as the city grew from a town into a city.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:54 (CET).