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Shortlands. The Company's district of supply was thus extended
to an area of 120 square miles. In 1885 the Bromley and the
Sevenoaks Rural Sanitary Authorities requested the Kent Waterworks
Company to supply parts of their districts. The necessary
Act of Parliament was obtained in 1888, and the Company's
limits of supply were thus extended to an area of about one hundred
and seventy-eight square miles, of which about thirty only
are within the County of London, the remainder being in the
County of Kent. When the Company as at present constituted
began their business by taking over the Ravensbourne Waterworks
the undertaking was a comparatively small affair.
The works were situated on the banks of the river, and consisted
of a pump which was worked by a water-wheel. The
machinery was designed by Smeaton. The water was distributed
through wooden pipes. A few years later a pair of steam-engines
were put up by Boulton and Watt, and these engines are still
working. Unfiltered water was used till the year 1844, when the
first filter bed was made, and in 1850 a subsidence reservoir was
constructed, and more filter beds were constructed. The reservoir
is still in existence; it is situated to the west of the river, but
it has for years been disused as a source of water supply, and
remains as a piece of ornamental water in the garden of the
engineer. The water of the Ravensbourne was insufficient to
afford a supply, and in 1857 a deep well was sunk in the chalk.
An abundant quantity of pure water was found, and from the year
1862 the entire district of the Company has been supplied by
well-water. New wells have been sunk as occasion required. All
of them are in the chalk, except the one at Westerham, which is in
the lower greensand.
Geology Of The District.
In the case of the metropolitan water companies of which an
account has hitherto been given it will be remembered that, with
one exception, the water used by the companies comes either from
the River Thames or from the gravel beds near the Thames.
The only well which has been referred to is the one at Streatham,
which belongs to the Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks