A concise history
The Silent Valley Reservoir - 1910 - 1933
By 1910 the ever-increasing demand for water was putting pressure on the Commissioners to implement stage two of Macassey's Mourne Scheme - the building of the Silent Valley Reservoir with a capacity of 3,000 million gallons. Unfortunately, the talented engineer who devised this remarkable scheme with great foresight, never lived to see its completion, having passed away two years earlier in 1908.
The Commissioners' own Chief Engineer, Mr F.W. McCullough and his team prepared the design and contract drawings for the new impounding reservoir which were in an advanced stage when war was declared in 1914.
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Early plans for the new reservoir
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It was 1922 before tenders were invited and the contract was eventually awarded in 1923 to Messrs. S. Pearson and Sons for just over one million pounds, a sum later renegotiated to £983,250. The first sod on the construction of Silent Valley was cut by Lord Carson on 10th October 1923 and within weeks 'Watertown' as it is known today, was emerging. Houses and hutments were built to accommodate the engineers, supervisors and workmen. The site had its own hospital and police station and there were shops, a canteen and a cinema for recreational use. The 'town' had its own coal-fired power station, which also provided the first street lighting in Ireland.
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Cutting of the first sod in 1923
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The infrastructure was further supported by a purpose-built railway constructed between the Silent Valley site and Annalong Harbour, a distance of 4.5 miles. In addition to carrying heavy plant and machinery, the track was also used to convey over one million tonnes of material and many hundreds of workmen.
2,000 men worked at the Valley from 1923 to 1933 - sadly eight lost their lives during construction work. For the men from Mourne, the Silent Valley contract was a godsend, for the only available work at that time was in the stone quarries or the fishing boats. The job-hungry men of Mourne walked incredible distances to get to work in Watertown, with many crossing the mountains twice a day.
The construction of the reservoir was a stringent test to engineer and labourer alike. Due to the geology of the valley floor, a 212 feet deep cut-off trench had to be constructed to eliminate the risk of water pressure uplifting and moving the dam. An ingenious method of construction using air locks and compressed air (35psi) kept the water out of the excavations. These extremely arduous conditions restricted the workforce to only the fittest of men and a limited working day.
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The workers had to pressurize in this airlock to work in
the 200 foot deep shafts and then decompress at the end of the shift
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Where the trench was more than a 100ft deep, the walls were supported by special cast iron segments. Once excavated, the trench was filled with concrete. All of the concrete was mixed by hand and on some days up to 100 tonnes were poured. As one of the greatest civil engineering achievements ever, the Silent Valley Reservoir was opened on 24th May 1933 by the Duke of Abercorn. The final cost of the scheme was £1.35 million.
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The Silent Valley Reservoir as it looks today.
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1934 - 1937
With the demand for water to service Belfast still growing, the Belfast City
and District Water Commissioners implemented another
phase of Macassey's vision and duplicated the pressurised
sections of the conduit - the major sections being in
the Newcastle and Ballynahinch valley basins.
YOUR RESPONSES:
Hugh Fitzsimons - Aug '06
My grandfather, also Hugh Fitzsimons was the
manager of the social club in 'Watertown' and my father
'Benny' grew up there with most of his brothers and
his sister.
At the end of construction of the dam my grandparents
bought the 2 storey house the family occupied in 'Watertown'
and shipped it to Ballymartin. By the time it was erected
in Ballymartin it had become a bungalow. Does anyone
know where the missing storey is?
Mary Boyd (nee) Murphy - Feb '06
This article is of particular interest to me as my uncle
Johnny Murphy from Hilltown was one of the eight men
who lost their lives during the construction of the
Silent Valley reservoir. He was killed in August 1929
and was only 18 years old. I feel it is very important
to remember men such as my uncle and to have an insight
into the sacrifices and risks undertaken by men employed
on a project such as this.
Alan Hunter - July '05
Excellent article, have anyone any information on how
the reservoirs were constructed in the Woodburn area
of Carrickfergus. I regularly walk around them and would
be interested in their construction and how they are
linked?
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