20-05-2021, 09:34 AM
8
Re: An afternoon out
Thanks all. We are so lucky by here to be able to get out into the countryside within minutes, and there's always something new to see.The obelisk really is an air vent. The water supply for Bristol is gravity fed and starts in the Zumerzet Hills. It's known as the Line of Works and feeds water at a rate of several gezillion firkins per fortnight.
It runs downhill with a very shallow gradient of about 16cm per km, but the gradient isn't constant.
There is a high point at Breach Hill, so a vent was installed to prevent airlocks, and the vent is tall so water can't escape.
It's thought the obelisk might also have been used as a line of sight marker so the water supply was built in the correct direction when the workforce couldn't see their target over the hill.
That's Victorian ingenuity and engineering for you.
This information was brought to you by the Wurzel Historic Society in association with the Zumerzet Riviera Tourist Board.
20-05-2021, 03:33 PM
10
Re: An afternoon out
Looks like you had a fantastic time and were greeted with some gorgeous scenery.Thank you for that elaboration on the vent. I was trying to figure it out. Unlike today's engineering, they at least made some effort to make the structure interesting with the obelisk shape.
It's such a pleasure to see the lambs. We don't have any within two hundred miles of here!
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