Little Swinburne Reservoir
Little Swinburne Reservoir is a small reservoir in Northumberland, England less than northeast of the A68 road, and about north of Corbridge. The A68 road generally follows the course of Dere Street, a Roman road, but has deviated at this point a little to the east, to facilitate a bridge crossing of the Swin Burn. History The reservoir was built at the end of the 19th century for the Newcastle and Gateshead Water Company. The reservoir forms part of a series of reservoirs along the A68 which are connected by tunnels and aqueducts from Catcleugh Reservoir to Whittle Dene; from where drinking water is supplied to Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, and some surrounding areas. The reservoirs that form the chain are, from northwest to southeast: Catcleugh Reservoir → Colt Crag Reservoir → Little Swinburne Reservoir → Hallington Reservoirs → Whittle Dene. The first proposals for a reservoir on the Swin Burn were submitted to Parliament in 1854 by the Whittle Dean Water Company. They needed additional sources of pure water, highlighted by a disastrous outbreak of cholera in Newcastle and Gateshead in 1853, from which 1,527 people died. Their bill included provision for the building of an aqueduct which would gather water from a number of streams in the North Tyne catchment. This water would be stored in a reservoir to the north-east of Swinburne Castle, from where another aqueduct would carry the water to the River Pont near Matfen, passing through a tunnel at Ryal, where higher ground otherwise prevented the water flowing by gravity. A House of Commons Select Committee began considering the proposals in March 1854. The company's engineer was James Simpson, but it appears that Thomas Hawksley supported the bill on its passage through Parliament, an engineer who had a reputation for being particularly good at presenting complex information in a clear fashion. Both men had visited the sites of the proposed works in early March, to assess what could be done to placate Thomas Riddell, who owned some of the land on which the aqueduct would be built. The company made him an offer, which he refused, making a counter claim for £7,600 in compensation, to which the company could not agree. Samuel Homersham, an engineer speaking against the bill, suggested that an additional reservoir at Whittle Dean could be built, and the opposition succeeded in having the clauses for the aqueduct to the west of Swinburne Castle and the reservoir removed from the bill. Some of Riddell's other proposals were rejected, including a clause to prevent the company from ever extracting water to the west of the Small Burn, and another to ensure that the company would ensure minimum flows in various streams, with financial penalties if they failed to do so. The bill became an Act of Parliament on 2 June 1854. The next proposal for the Swinburne area was made in 1873 by George Henry Hill, who was learning his trade by assisting the engineer John Frederick Bateman. Hill stated that measurements