Frieze commemorates typhoid tragedy

One of Lincoln’s worst peacetime tragedies is commemorated in the city thanks to Rotarians.

The Rotary Club of Lincoln rescued the Elkesley Frieze in a joint project with Anglian Water, City of Lincoln Council and Lincoln Civic Trust and had it installed at the Westgate Water Tower, which was built in 1911 after a devastating outbreak of typhoid in 1904-5.

This saw 1,006 people contract disease and resulted in 113 deaths. 

It was caused by polluted drinking water, which came from Hartsholme Reservoir and the River Witham, but the latter had been contaminated with animal and human waste as well as Lincoln’s booming industry.

Residents stopped using water from taps and went back to using buckets to collect water from wells and supplies that were shipped into the city by train or horse and cart. 

City officials came up with a longer lasting solution with the building a 22-mile long pipe from Elkesley in Nottinghamshire. It required an Act of Parliament in 1908 to go-head and was completed in 1911 with the official switch-on on October 3 of that year.

“The Mayor of Lincoln and prominent Rotarian, Clement Newsum – who was later knighted – turned on the water supply in The Arboretum and a jet of water spurted 70-feet into the air. The cathedral bells were sounded long and long,” explained current member John Cawdell.

The scheme also the building of the Water Tower, which had been designed by Sir Reginald Bloomfield to be in keeping with the nearby castle and cathedral. Bloomfield went on to design the Menin Gate at Ypres.

Elkesley Pumping Station, which had also been built by the old Lincoln Corporation, was demolished after one of the two steam engines that pumped water from local boreholes to Lincoln failed in 1978.

The Rotary Club of Lincoln celebrated its centenary in 2021-2 and rescuing a terracotta frieze from the old pumping station was one of its projects to mark the anniversary.

“It was felt appropriate to re-site it at the water tower in Lincoln to remember how Elkesley water was the salvation of Lincoln city,’” said John.

The frieze was unveiled by the then Mayor of Lincoln, Cllr Jackie Kirk, pictured above with representatives of the project’s participants. Pictures: Andy Blow.