Why Were Enormous Water Tanks Built in Britain’s Parks During the War?

Why Were Enormous Water Tanks Built in Britain’s Parks During the War?

On the 20th of May 1941, Herbert Morrison told Parliament what had happened during one particularly difficult air raid.

High-explosive bombs had broken the water mains. Firefighters switched to a reserve static supply, but that was hit as well. The pumps were smashed and men were killed or injured.

Hoses were then run from another source some distance away. A large building collapsed across them and the water was cut off again.

Incidents like this were one reason huge Emergency Water Supply reservoirs began appearing around Britain. Historic England records that they were being constructed in towns and cities across the country from late 1941, giving fire brigades a supply that did not depend entirely upon the mains.

They were put on open ground, including parks, lawns and bomb sites.

Weston-super-Mare eventually had fifteen.

Three stood on Alexandra Parade beside the Odeon cinema and another three were placed on Beach Lawn. Others were built on bomb sites and in residential areas. Historic England’s study of wartime aerial photographs found that none of Weston’s fifteen reservoirs appeared before July 1942.

By the 26th of November 1942, MPs were discussing a different issue: children getting into the tanks.

Metal mesh had already been tried, but Morrison said children were dancing on it within an hour and one fell through. He announced that rings of barbed wire would be fitted to make access more difficult.

People were also throwing rubbish into the reservoirs and interfering with pipes and valves. Morrison described the supplies as being of “first-rate importance” to the war effort.

At Weston-super-Mare, the three reservoirs on Alexandra Parade were still standing when an RAF photograph was taken on the 13th of January 1946. By then they no longer contained water. Historic England records that they had been removed by 1948.

Their purpose was straightforward: if bombing had broken the mains, firefighters needed another source of water close enough to use.

It is another often-overlooked reminder of how much had to be planned for war. Everything had to be considered, including what would happen if something as basic as the water supply suddenly failed.

Did your town have one of these Emergency Water Supply tanks during the war?

Ministry of Information Photo Division, Marchant’s Hill School, Hindhead, Surrey, 1944. The large pool shown in the photograph was actually a wartime static emergency water tank, built so that it could also be used as a swimming pool by the children. Imperial War Museums collection. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.