[From Mona's Herald, Wednesday, June 6, 1860]

THE DOUGLAS WATER WORKS.

The summer is now coming on, and although the springs are full of water supplied by redundant mains, perhaps ere sober autumn shall tinge the foliage of the grove with fading yellow, the earth may be parched with drought, and the supply of water to many localities be scanty and short. Such has been the case in Douglas more than once; but thanks to the enterprise and energy of the Douglas Water Company it is not likely ever to occur again. We consider the new works for the supply of water to this town as one of the most valuable improvements made in this Island for a long time. When the citizen shall turn the cock in the dryest season, and the pure and limpid water shall gush out in unfailing abundance, he may not consider at what great expense and enterprise it has been obtained, unless he has visited the fountain-head which supplies it.

We took occasion a few days ago to visit this fountain-head, and were well rewarded for our pains in more ways than one.

The water is taken from a small but living stream which flows down a glen and empties into the sea at Groudle bay. Follow the Ramsey road from Onchan village till you cross the stream over a bridge, then diverge to the left in a N.W. direction, and as pretty a glen opens before you as one would wish to see. The road which ascends it following the windings of the stream is skirted with the finest plantation to be found on the Island. The trees in real variety are very thrifty, straight, and beautiful, and standing proofs that Mona can produce trees as well as other countries.

As you ascend the glen it will be seen that the hand of industry has appropriated the stream and its banks and put them to a profitable use. Wellington Mill converts the corn into flour and meal, while Bowring Mill manufactures the wool into cloths and stocking-yarn.

We took a special interest in going through the last named structure, examining its machinery, and witnessing the results of its operations, as it was carrying out to some degree what we have long recommended as essential to the prosperity of this Island. We have ever urged it upon our good people who have the means to use the water power of our numerous streams in the line of manufacture, to give employment to young and old, male and female, and thus save the immense expenditure of money on imported goods which might be well produced here.

This mill furnishes good substantial cloths for common wearing, and here, too, stocking yarn is furnished to the women in great variety and at reasonable price. The proprietor of the mill very kindly showed us over all his works, and we thought that if Sir John Bowring were along with us, he would be delighted to find his name perpetuated in Mona by the potter of a never-fading stream. The pond of water raised by the dam to this mill is the fountain-head or summit level of the Douglas Water Works. Here the water, let in through a strainer into large pipes, is conducted down stream some 100 rods to the great reservoir intended to furnish an unfailing supply of water in the driest season.

The reservoir is not yet completed, but enough has been done at it to enable one to see what it will be when finished. We are informed that the whole was planned by Mr. J. Jefferson, and it does him much credit as a practical surveyor and engineer.

The bank of this stream, turning up to the midday sun on an angle of 15 degrees, is covered with strawberry plants full in blossom, and garden vegetables very forward and promising; and there being some fine spots for dwelling houses, a man loving retirement would find this glen a most delightful retreat for a summer residence. This, like many other sequestered spots on the Island, is off the main thoroughfares, and visitors come and go without seeing it; but we advise them if they want a charming place for picnic parties, to go to the summit level of the Douglas Water Works, and they will there find it.

[From Mona's Herald, Wednesday, August 31, 1859]

DOUGLAS WATERWORKS.

On Friday last, the new water extension source from Bowring Mill, was laid on to this town through the large new main pipe, the connection of which with that portion of the main laid down last summer from White Bridge having been completed. The Reservoir, or settling lodge, is now in course of erection near the Bowring Mill; and a new main of a larger diameter, to replace the pipes from Summer Hill to Douglas, and service branches to the new parts of the town, are about to be laid down. When these additions to the existing works shall have been completed, few towns will be better supplied than Douglas with water, and that of the purest quality. The coating of the pipes to prevent oxidation, though insoluble, imparts to the water a slightly disagreeable flavour, which, however, is not unwholesome, and soon wears off. A similar coating is now being applied by Mr. Bateman, Civil engineer, in the extensive water works from Longh Katrine to Glasgow, and is the invention of Dr. Angus Smith, the celebrated Analytical Chymist.