The Queen Mary Reservoir is one of the largest of London's reservoirs supplying fresh water to London and parts of surrounding counties, and is located in the Borough of Spelthorne in Surrey . The reservoir covers 707 acres (2.86 km ) and is 45 ft (14 m) above the surrounding area.
30-712: The Staines Reservoirs are two large pumped storage reservoirs sitting to the east of the King George VI Reservoir near Heathrow airport in Surrey within the Colne Valley regional park . The village of Stanwell is mainly to the north east, and the town of Staines is to the south. Both adjoin, west, the A3044 . The south one adjoins the A30 where the road is bypassed by the intra-M25 motorway network but
60-509: A 1 km central gravel/earth embankment breakwater running north–south and designed to reduce wave action. Water is abstracted from the River Thames downstream of Penton Hook Weir at up to 200,000,000 imp gal (910,000,000 L; 240,000,000 US gal) and flows via the 1.26 km Laleham Aqueduct to a pumping station (51°24'56.0"N 0°28'36.9"W) at the western embankment of the reservoir. The pumping station lifts water into
90-575: A Site of Special Scientific Interest ( SSSI ) as it carries important wintering populations of tufted ducks , pochard , goosander and goldeneye . The Staines Reservoirs Aqueduct is a 13 km (8.1 mi) aqueduct that runs from the River Thames at Hythe End in Buckinghamshire (51°26'24.4"N 0°32'28.8"W) to the Red House distribution reservoir (51°25'11.6"N 0°23'20.4"W) near Kempton Park. It
120-588: A flock of sheep is kept on them which keeps them close-cropped. It is part of the Staines Moor Site of Special Scientific Interest . The reservoirs carry (are habitats for) nationally large wintering populations of tufted ducks , pochard , goosander and goldeneye . Queen Mary Reservoir Queen Mary Reservoir is located south of Ashford and east of Laleham. It lies south of the A308 and at its closest point 0.25 miles (0.40 km) northwest of
150-411: A joint committee to oversee the construction. The two reservoirs, North and South, are separated by a 1,030-metre embankment dam. The embankments of the two have a 6- to 8-metre-deep puddle clay core having scoured out the surface gravel to the underlying London Clay. They have total capacity of 3,338 million gallons (15.175 million m) and were completed in 1902. The valve towers are to the west. Later in
180-459: A modern replica of the submersibles tested here. The model is on display at the Eden Camp museum near Malton , North Yorkshire . The reservoir embankment has a puddle clay core extending down into the underlying London Clay and gravel/earth shoulders at a slope of 1 in 3. The top of the embankment is 12 m above the surrounding land. The key engineering parameters are: The reservoir has
210-644: A north-east direction, it then flows in two steel siphons under the Colne Brook. It continues in a concrete lined open conduit, before going under the Wraysbury river in steel siphons, then east across Staines Moor and another siphon under the River Colne to Staines pumping station. From here water is lifted into the Staines and King George VI reservoirs by pumps. Water for treatment and use is drawn from
240-606: Is a trunk road, maintained by National Highways . They were completed in 1902. For reliable and plentiful water supplies, three London water companies resolved to construct and operate two large reservoirs at seasonally waterlogged land partly in the parish of Staines, otherwise in Stanwell. These would be pumped storage reservoirs to hold water abstracted from the Thames receiving it from an aqueduct, then delivering it by another to treatment works for their supply pipes. The three were
270-481: Is lined with 150,000 expanded concrete wedge blocks. The contractors for the project were Edmund Nuttall, Sons and Company Limited. In February 2014, after a sustained period of heavy rain, the River Thames was at a high level that caused water to back up in the River Colne. This then spilt into the Staines Reservoirs Aqueduct, which channelled the water to Staines. The aqueduct spilt over into
300-449: The M3 motorway . Heathrow airport is 3.7 miles north of the reservoir. The reservoir was formerly designated as being in the county of Middlesex . In 1965 Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames Urban Districts were transferred to the county of Surrey. The Borough of Spelthorne was formed in 1974 incorporating Staines and Sunbury-on-Thames Urban Districts. The reservoir is now designated as part of
330-706: The Staines Reservoirs , built 1902, receive their input from the Thames at Hythe End , Wraysbury above Bell Weir Lock and the mouth of the Colne Brook . The reservoir's inlet valve tower is south, north of a pumping station; the outlet one is east, being gravity-fed. Input and output are to and from the Staines Reservoirs Aqueduct, feeding the Water Treatment Works at Kempton Park and another at Hampton . To ease inspection of banks,
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#1732773349125360-519: The Thames Water Authority , now Thames Water . In 1992 there was a proposal to increase the capacity of the reservoirs by raising the height of the dam walls and removing the dividing embankment. The work was estimated to take up to six years to complete. From April 2020 a sheet pile cut-off wall was installed in two places to prevent leakage of water through the core of the south reservoir's embankment. The area has been designated
390-610: The Board was abolished in 1974 under the provisions of the Water Act 1973 (c. 37) ownership and control transferred to the Thames Water Authority . Under the provisions of the Water Act 1989 (c. 15) the Thames Water Authority was privatised as Thames Water . Sand and gravel were formerly dredged from the reservoir, making the bottom uneven and affecting water circulation. In 2008 Thames Water digitally modelled
420-829: The New River Company, the Grand Junction Water Company and the West Middlesex Water Company. To obtain full indemnity and a compulsory purchase standard mechanism they promoted the Staines Reservoir Bill of 1896. The bill was opposed by some landowners, London and Middlesex County Councils . Nevertheless, the bill was enacted, with amendments, as the Staines Reservoirs, &c. Act 1896 ( 59 & 60 Vict. c.ccxli). The companies formed
450-520: The North Reservoir is 3 m higher than the South reservoir. Water for treatment and use is drawn from the reservoirs through the valve towers and delivered to the aqueduct to flow south-east to several water treatment works. The Metropolitan Water Board operated the reservoirs until the Board was abolished in 1974 under the provisions of the Water Act 1973 and ownership and control transferred to
480-611: The River Ash, which overtopped its banks and flooded about 80 houses in the Leacroft and Priory Green areas and damaged the aqueduct. King George VI Reservoir The King George VI Reservoir sits between Stanwell Moor and Staines upon Thames , south-west of Heathrow , England . It is between Staines Moor and a north–south road abutting the Staines Reservoirs . The reservoir was opened in November 1947 and named after
510-413: The Staines and King George VI Reservoirs and flows along the Staines Reservoirs Aqueduct in an east-south-east direction to Ashford, then around the north side of Queen Mary Reservoir , water discharged from the reservoir enters the aqueduct at this point. The aqueduct continues across Ashford Common with a connection to Ashford Common water treatment works and then across Sunbury Common. From Sunbury Common
540-451: The aqueduct changes direction to the north-east, it curves around the north side of Kempton Park race course with connections to Sunbury and Kempton Park water treatment works, and flows in a south-east direction into the Red House distribution reservoir (51°25'11.6"N 0°23'20.4"W). From here a pipeline and an open aqueduct takes water south to the reservoirs at the west end of Hampton waterworks. From 1916 experiments were undertaken to pre-treat
570-416: The bottom to identify high points where aggregates could be removed. Planning approval was given to remove 1.25 million tonnes of aggregate and two-thirds of the breakwater. This increased the reservoir capacity by 1.26 percent. A jetty and aggregate processing facility was constructed on the west side of the reservoir just north of the intake. The emergency drawdown rate (the rate at which the water level in
600-698: The county of Surrey. Construction of the Littleton Reservoir was authorised under the provisions of the Metropolitan Water Board (Various Powers) Act 1921 (11 & 12 Geo. 5, c.cxv). It was designed by the Board’s Chief Engineer Henry Stilgoe (1867-1943) and was completed in December 1924. Some sources state that the reservoir was designed by John Watson Gibson for the Metropolitan Water Board . It
630-457: The eastern Thames Basin lacked sufficiently watered, largely unpopulated, agriculturally unprized vales to be dammed near to which conveniently coal-supplied treatment works and pipes to London could be built. A tendered bid for the work – at £1,292,000, equivalent to £105,300,000 in 2023 – was accepted in July 1937. The contractor was John Mowlem and Co. Limited. The reservoir
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#1732773349125660-515: The reservoir can be reduced) was about 0.25 metres/day. Inspections in 2005-07 identified that this was inadequate, and proposed that the drawdown should be 0.75 m/d as defined in the provisions of the Reservoirs Act 1975 . This was achieved by installing twin 1.6 m diameter siphon pipes over the embankment. The valves controlling the outflow are 13 m high and have a flow capacity of 13 m /s. The discharge pipes are 250 m long and discharge into
690-555: The reservoir. An outlet tower is located adjacent to the north-east embankment (51°25'17.4"N 0°26'57.1"W). Water is discharged into the Staines Reservoirs Aqueduct which runs round the north of the reservoir to the Kempton Park and Hampton water treatment works. The water quality changes which took place during reservoir storage are as follows. The Metropolitan Water Board operated the reservoir until
720-548: The same year of building the three companies, and seven others, dissolved into the Metropolitan Water Board – under the Metropolis Water Act 1902 . The reservoirs are filled from the Staines Reservoirs Aqueduct, built as part of the works. Water was originally lifted from the aqueduct to the reservoirs by five steam driven engines, each with a capacity of 16 million gallons per day (72,737 m/day). The engines were housed in Staines pumping station south-west of
750-410: The south reservoir. Under the original legal provisions, when the flow of the river at Bell Weir exceeded 265 million gallons a day (1.205 million m/d) the joint company could abstract any surplus up to 100 million gallons (454,609 m) of which 35 million gallons (159,113 m) could be run directly to the filter beds at Hampton and the surplus (295,496 m/day) pumped into the reservoirs. The top water level in
780-540: The then reigning monarch George VI . It is owned by Thames Water . It occupies 350 acres (1.4 km ) and holds 3,493 million gallons (15,880,000 m ) or, per The Times , 4,466 million gallons. The top of its banks are 56 ft (17 m) above the surrounds. The enclosing bank crest measures 5.23 km. Like its Lower Thames siblings, it is of earthen dam build: a puddled clay lining and embankments from materials excavated on site, particularly ballast (heavier aggregates). It has been built-up from dry land as
810-603: The water in the aqueduct with chlorine added to the water from the Staines reservoirs. To increase the supply of water the aqueduct was paralleled underground in the 1960s by the Staines–Kempton aqueduct tunnel. This was built by the Metropolitan Water Board between 1960–63 and runs from Little Hythe on the Thames to the water treatment works at Kempton Park. It is 7.64 kilometres (4.75 mi) long and 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in) in diameter. The tunnel
840-532: Was built by the Staines Reservoirs Joint Committee and originally completed in 1902. The maximum flow capacity of the aqueduct is 364 million litres per day (364,000 m/day). Water is drawn from the north side of the Thames about 300 yards above Bell Weir, at a decorative sluice house. This is provided with sluices to control the flow and screens to prevent debris entering the aqueduct. The water runs underground for about 350 yards in
870-669: Was completed in 1939 but was left empty due to the outbreak of the Second World War . It is reputed that a mock Clapham Junction railway station was built inside to confuse the Luftwaffe . The reservoir was used for fog dispersal experiments for an aircraft landing in fog or smog technique, FIDO . It was formally opened by King George VI on 7 November 1947. The land purchase was likely connected with gravel extraction locally. Four such firms were digging for aggregates in Stanwell in 1956, employing nearly 100 people. This and
900-591: Was formally opened by King George V in June 1925 as the Queen Mary Reservoir , renamed for the Queen Consort, Mary of Teck ; a plaque commemorates the event. It was the largest reservoir in the world at that time. In 1943, during World War II, the reservoir was used for testing submersibles. The submersible was nicknamed " Sleeping Beauty ". In 2010 Prince Philip visited the reservoir to unveil
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