3-066-045 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Vyrnwy new waterworks for Liverpool, 1881. 'The site of the projected artificial lake is about six miles south-east of Bala Lake over the Bwlch-y-Groes Pass. It consists of a long narrow tract of valley land at an elevation of 780 feet above the sea level. It is inclosed, except at the nether end, by the high rugged Silurian rocks of the district...Into this valley flow innumerable streams and rivulets from the mountain sides, which unite to form the river Vyrnwy. At its lower end the valley narrows to a breadth of only 300 yards, through which the river flows through a deep rocky gorge. At this point the retaining embankment will be constructed, the rocks on either side forming natural supports for the structure...The reservoir is sufficiently high to allow its contents to flow to Liverpool by natural gravitation. In a direct line the distance between Liverpool and Vyrnwy is forty-six miles, but the intervening country is so mountainous and irregular that the actual length of the aqueduct will be sixty-seven miles...The line will pass through Oswestry, Malpas, Beeston, through Delamere Forest, under the River Weaver, and across the Mersey at a point about three miles above the Runcorn railway viaduct'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.