74
ON TREE-TRUNK WATER-PIPES.
centuries before the introduction of iron ones, from its compara-
tively slow growth, and its position in an agricultural district far
from the iron-producing parts of England, seems likely to have
used wooden pipes many years after they were superseded in such
places as London, Hull, and Newcastle-on-Tyne. Feeling this,.
I wrote to Mr. H. Laver, F.S.A., etc., asking him if he could
give me any information on this point. He very kindly endeav-
oured to ascertain the date of the change from wood to iron, but
without success. When the Corporation at Colchester took
over the management of the Waterworks, they do not appear to
have preserved the various documents of the Water Company
preceding them to the degree necessary for the settlement of this
question. Thus, in the case of Colchester, we learn by accident
of the use there of tree-trunk pipes in 1620, but, on the other
hand, accident has prevented us from ascertaining whether they
were still employed in the earlier years of the reign of Queen
Victoria. However, it is the impossibility of knowing where
any evidence of the late survival of these pipes may exist, that
makes the collection of what is available desirable.
We have seen that a chief defect of tree-trunk pipes was
their liability to decay at the joints. A result of this, says the
writer in Rees' Cyclopaedia, is that "the pavement of the streets is
constantly broken up, the way impeded, and the supply of water
suspended." The streets of London, as most of us know, have
been more blocked than usual since the beginning of the present
century, by excavations for various purposes. It is somewhat
amusing to find that Londoners a century ago must have had
little, if any, advantage over us in this respect. If the total
amount of the traffic then was much less than at present, it was
much more concentrated in a limited number of streets. And
the streets then, as now, most subject to excavations, must have
been the chief business streets, which would need repairs much
oftener than the others. As a dug-out canoe, carried down by a.
flood and buried in silt, may be preserved for centuries if allowed
to remain undisturbed under the same conditions, yet rot
speedily if they are much varied; so with tree-trunk water-
pipes beneath a street. Those beneath the busy thoroughfares,
which were frequently needing repairs, might rot from ten to
fifty times as fast as those under quiet streets but a few
yards away.