They needed additional sources of pure water, highlighted by a disastrous outbreak of cholera in Newcastle and Gateshead in 1853, from which 1,527 people died.

[3] Their bill included provision for the building of an aqueduct which would gather water from a number of streams in the North Tyne catchment.

Both men had visited the sites of the proposed works in early March, to assess what could be done to placate Thomas Riddell, who owned some of the land on which the aqueduct would be built.

[5] The next proposal for the Swinburne area was made in 1873 by George Henry Hill, who was learning his trade by assisting the engineer John Frederick Bateman.

[6] Following an unprecedented period of dry weather lasting for 560 days and ending in November 1874, a reservoir on the Swin Burn was again considered, and Hill again recommended proceeding.

The towns eventually withdrew there opposition, but Riddell's complaint was that the works would severely damage his 7,000-acre (2,800 ha) estate, and that its engineering was unsound.

They argued that the lower reservoir was too low for all of its capacity to be useful, as it was below the elevation where gravity could be used to feed the water into the rest of the company's system.

Exploratory borings were made in January 1877, but by then the directors had decided to abandon their plans for Upper Swinburne reservoir, and instead proceed with that proposed by Bewick and Riddell, for which they obtained an Act of Parliament on 12 July 1877.