[1] The Southend Waterworks Company had its origins in Southend-on-Sea in 1865 when a private undertaking constructed a well in Milton Road.

[2] which restricted the amount of money they could borrow, the profits they could retain and the dividend payable to shareholders,[3] but gave them powers to lay pipes beneath public streets and on private land.

In 1921 the company started to look at extracting water from rivers, but failed to obtain parliamentary approval for a joint scheme with the South Essex Waterworks Company to obtain water from the River Stour on the border between Essex and Suffolk.

[2] The project involved the construction of intakes on the Chelmer and Ter, so that water from either or both could be fed into a concrete pipeline which was 33 inches (84 cm) in diameter and 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long.

The water flowed by gravity along the pipeline to two sedimentation reservoirs each covering 10.1 acres (4.1 ha) and capable of holding 30 million imperial gallons (140 Ml).

Oakwood (elevation 65 metres) was the main storage reservoir supplying treated water to Southend by gravity.

The project cost £260,000, and was formally inaugurated on 31 October 1963, when Sir George Chaplin, the Chairman of Essex County Council, switched on the new pumps.

Negotiations between Maldon District Council, Essex and Suffolk Water and other interested parties in 1996 resulted in the Langford pumping station and its one remaining engine, dating from 1931, becoming the fledgling Museum of Power.

[4] The South Essex Waterworks Company was formed in 1861, and supplied drinking water to an area of 103 square miles (270 km2) stretching from Grays to East Ham and from Brentwood to the River Thames.

5. c. lxxix), for a revised scheme which included a water treatment works at Langham with an intake from the River Stour.

[7] Although the Langham works could supply 12 million imperial gallons (55 Ml) per day, and came online in 1932, they estimated that they would still be facing a shortage by the end of the decade.

[7] The pipeline from Stratford St. Mary was 11 miles (18 km) long, while Abberton Reservoir covers an area of 1,210 acres (4.9 km2) and lies in the valley of the Layer Brook.

Layer treatment works could process 27 million imperial gallons (125 Ml) per day, and the system was designed to store water from winter rainfall for use in the summer months.

The main contractors for the project were W&C French, and it took around five years to complete, with the treatment works beginning production in August 1956.

The formal opening took place over a year later, when Henry Brooke, MP, the Minister of Housing and Local Government, performed the ceremony in September 1957.

Water levels fluctuate seasonally, and during the winter months, up to 53 million imperial gallons (240 Ml) per day are pumped into the reservoir via the Langford pipeline.

[13] In order to meet the rising demands for water faced by both companies, the next major project was the Ely-Ouse to Essex Transfer Scheme.

Surplus water in the River Great Ouse, which would otherwise flow into the sea, was to be diverted via a series of channels, tunnels and pipelines to augment supplies to the Abberton and Hanningfield reservoirs.

An intake was constructed at Blackdyke, close to the Little Ouse, and a tunnel carries the water to a pumping station at Kennett.

Water was supplied to a tower at Kirkley from a well at Middle West Field,[18] and subsequently from a lake at Bunkers Hill, Lound.

[21] However, the bill eventually became the Great Yarmouth Waterworks and Lowestoft Water and Gas Act 1907 (7 Edw.

Parts of the works date from the 1930s, and others from the 1950s, but a major upgrade was completed in 2005, to enhance the treatment of water from the broads, which is affected by algal bloom for around a quarter of each year.

[26] To meet long-term supply requirements, the company looked at several options, and in 1997 settled on expanding the capacity of Abberton Reservoir.

[30] With the capacity of the reservoir increased from 5,700 to 9,000 million imperial gallons (26,000 to 41,000 Ml), two new pipelines were constructed, to improve the transfer of water from the Ouse.

[31] The Ely Ouse to Essex Transfer Scheme was licensed to allow 100 million imperial gallons (455 Ml) per day to be transferred, but the pumps at the Kennett pumping station could not deliver this volume, and the maximum permitted discharge into the river at Kirtling Green was 76 million imperial gallons (344 Ml) per day.

[32] Around 9.6 miles (15.4 km) of new underground pipeline was constructed from Kirtling Green in Suffolk, along the banks of the Stour to Wixoe, where the water discharges into the river.

A condition of the planning consent was that it should look like a traditional farm building, and so the walls are finished in black timber cladding, and the pitched roof is covered in clay tiles.

To prevent the problem re-occurring in the future, Essex and Suffolk Water applied for permission to construct a 12.4-mile (20 km) pipeline from Layer de la Haye to Langford Treatment Works, which like Hanningfield used physio-chemical processing.

The pipeline will deliver up to 11 million imperial gallons (50 Ml) per day to Langford, which is taken from the raw water inlet to Layer de la Haye works, and will flow along the pipe by gravity.

Installation of the pipes began in February 2024, and is expected to be completed by March 2025, although work to carry the pipeline beneath the River Chelmer and the Langford Cut commenced in September 2023.