King George VI Reservoir

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Coordinates: 51°26′56″N 0°30′07″W / 51.449°N 0.502°W / 51.449; -0.502
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

King George VI Reservoir
Thames Basin
Basin countriesUnited Kingdom
Built1937
Surface area140 ha (350 acres)
Max. depth17 m (56 ft)
Water volume15.88 Gl (3.49×10^9 imp gal)
Shore length15.23 kilometres (3.25 mi)
Surface elevation15 metres (49 ft) to 16 metres (52 ft)
IslandsNone
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

The King George VI Reservoir sits between

Heathrow, England. It is between Staines Moor and a north–south road abutting the Staines Reservoirs. The reservoir was opened in November 1947 and named after the then reigning monarch George VI. It is owned by Thames Water
.

Construction and statistics

It occupies 350 acres (1.4 km2) and holds 3,493 million

vales to be dammed
near to which conveniently coal-supplied treatment works and pipes to London could be built.

A tendered bid for the work – at £1,292,000, equivalent to £88,700,000 in 2021 – was accepted in July 1937. The contractor was John Mowlem and Co. Limited.[2]

World War II use when empty

The reservoir was completed in 1939 but was left empty due to the outbreak of the

Second World War. It is reputed that a mock Clapham Junction railway station was built inside to confuse the Luftwaffe.[4] The reservoir was used for fog dispersal experiments for an aircraft landing in fog or smog technique, FIDO.[5] It was formally opened by King George VI on 7 November 1947.[2]

Local economic history

The land purchase was likely connected with gravel extraction locally. Four such firms were digging for aggregates in Stanwell in 1956, employing nearly 100 people.[6]

Operation, sheep and notable birds

This and the

Hythe End, Wraysbury above Bell Weir Lock and the mouth of the Colne Brook. The reservoir's inlet valve tower is south, north of a pumping station; the outlet one is east, being gravity-fed. Input and output are to and from the Staines Reservoirs Aqueduct, feeding the Water Treatment Works at Kempton Park and another at Hampton
.

To ease inspection of banks, a flock of sheep is kept on them which keeps them close-cropped.[7]

It is part of the

goosander and goldeneye
.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0-7277-2876-8
  2. ^ a b c d "350-acre reservoir opening at Staines by the King today". The Times. 7 November 1947. p. 3.
  3. ^ Hewlett, Henry (2004). Long-Term Benefits and Performance of Dams (Proceedings the 13th Conference of the British Dam Society held at the University of Kent, June 2004). Thomas Telford, UK.
  4. ISBN 1-85310-259-8
    .
  5. ISBN 1-85627-900-6
    .
  6. ^ Reynolds, Susan (1962). 'Stanwell: Economic and social history', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3 pp. 43-45. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol3/pp43-45
  7. ^ "The real-life reservoir dogs (press release)". PR Newswire. Thames Water. Retrieved 4 December 2016.

External links

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