Waterworks and commemoration: purity, rurality, and civic identity in Britain, 1880–1921

Abstract

This article studies the commemoration and ceremonial culture surrounding the inauguration of new waterworks in British municipalities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It analyses how new waterworks could be seen as a symbol of a progressive civic government, and how the commemoration of their opening could be used to enhance a city's image. The article also studies the ways in which ideas concerning the purity of new water supplies were constructed. An examination is made of how ceremonial culture and publications reflected the particular politics of waterworks in individual localities, and how such commemoration could serve as a vehicle for the promotion of civic unity.

Water under the bridge? Nature, memory and hydropolitics

“…In this context, the findings support that of Gruffudd's 'uncivil engineering' 104 undertaken by English cities in the Welsh uplands. It is interesting to note that Roberts 105 found that commemorative ceremonies organized by the cities that built the dams attempted to underline the way in which water engineering schemes brought the purity of nature and the countryside into the city, whilst in Tryweryn, the schemes were seen by many to bring the unnatural and urban into the middle of nature. Memory of such hydropolitical situations can, therefore, be highly contested, and indicate that culture, perspective and power relations can be hugely significant in creating that memory.…”

Review of periodical literature published in 2007

“…Associational life is also considered widely. Roberts examines ceremonies marking the opening of new water supplies in nineteenth‐century towns, seeing these rituals as significant aspects of the burgeoning civic culture of the period. Ceremonies fostered civic unity, which had often been fractured because of the contested nature of the municipal politics of water.…”