Norwich's Netherflow
Size 210 x 148mm, 144 pages, over 100 illustrations. Price £10 plus £2.50 p&p (UK only).
Everyone knows about the ‘fine city’ of Norwich, but where would its residents be without both piped drinking water and the ability to flush away waste?
For most of the population, these health-bringing innovations finally arrived in the late nineteenth century. Providing water services for all was no easy task – especially not in low-lying Norwich. By the turn of the century, the city was known as a ‘happy hunting ground’ for the nation’s civil engineers, thanks to the challenge of building sewers through soft wet ground and against the natural gradients. Tunnels had to be dug deeper than some of Norwich’s famous chalk mines.
Matthew Williams adds to his previous writings on Norwich as a physical entity with this fascinating account. It tells how the water engineers overcame early setbacks and found innovative ways of ensuring the needs of the growing city were met.
This fully illustrated book describes a 150-year legacy of hidden subterranean infrastructure on which the city continues to be heavily reliant.