Wayward Water.

 I came across a little piece in several papers, Yorkshire Post, Leeds Inteligencer, Edinburgh Evening News and the Hull Daily Mail around 24th July 1903.

Yorkshire Post 24th July 19032

This intrigued me and looked a little deeper to see what it was all about. I found the inquest reports in the papers too. It seems at the time of his death Daniel Pacey was a lock keeper on the Walton Flight of Locks on the Barnsley Canal. He had been born at Pinchbeck in Licolnshire, the son of a small farmer of 25 acres. He married Mary Ann from Oakham in Rutland and they soon moved to Yorkshire where they settled down and had at least seven children, but only one girl. He continued as an agricultural labourer. In the 1891 the family was living at Old Brick Yard that was close to Soap House Yard and the Top Lock House. The Walton Flight of locks was divided in to two by Shay Lane, seven below and 5 above.

The Barnsley Canal was opened in 1799 and completed for its 14.5 mile length in 1802. It joined the Aire and Calder at Heath, close to Fall Ings Lock at Wakefield where it becomes the Calder and Hebble Canal. The Aire and Calder Co (A&C Co) were major shareholders in the Barnsley Canal from the beginning and took over completely in 1856. It was dug to transport coal from the Barnsley area, but despite mines failing and tramways having to be built and bridges raised it even made money after the railways arrived. It was dogged by subsidence however and the top end of the canal, including the link with the Dove and Dearne Canal was closed in 1893. Further subsidence and breeches led to its closure in 1946. There was talk of it being revived but once the local council plan did not agree to include the route in it these hopes were abandoned and assets of the society transferred to the Chesterfield Canal battle.

By 1901 Daniel and his family were living in Walton, in the same area, and was now a Navigation Labourer. He had one son working underground as a miner and two working in the nearby brickyard. Daniel must have been promoted to Lock Keeper soon after as at the first inquest it is stated that he had been living at the lock house for two years.

The map shows the area of Shay Lane that crosses the canal. Soap House Yard can be seen and I assume that Old Brick Yard is one of those closer to the canal. I expect that the lock house is one of those north of the road by the canal. The first inquest was held at the New Inn two days after the death.

Daniel and family moved into the lock house in 1901 and on the evidence of a neighbour, Mrs. Booth Daniel had asked the Aire and Calder Co to install town water, but this was not done. Mary Ann his wife was well enough to give evidence sating that daughter Fanny was taken in ill first then herself and a son, then lastly her husband. All had vomiting and diarrhea. It seems that they most often drank canal water that was put through a charcoal filter, but sometimes went to a neighbours, when convenient, to get water as they were on the town supply. A Mr Plews, appearing for the A&C Co said that if the filter was not cleaned properly it may have contributed to the illness, and he considered filters of little value.

I assume that this is the sort of charcoal filters that are mentioned.

It appears that a town supply of water had been requested when they moved in. Joseph Smith, the A&C Inspector for the area had allegedly told them it would be so, but he stated that he hadn't been asked until a few months ago. The Coroner decided that a postmortem should be carried out and the inquest was adjourned.

Three days later the inquest was reconvened and the doctor  Doc. Hermon, gave evidence that death had been caused by exhaustion through gastro enteritis which was due to some irritating substance which had got into the system. Canal would no doubt be a possible source of the infection. No discussion about other possible sources of poisoning were entered into. Henry Pickard assistant Engineer to the A&C Co gave evidence that occupants of the barges did not throw sewage into the canal. A juror responded by asking 'What about the dead dogs and cats?'. That was followed by laughter.

After a short consultation the jury returned a verdict that the deceased had died from ptomaine (the 'p' is silent) poisoning, probably caused by the drinking of canal water. Ptomaine poisoning was an old fashioned term for food poisoning. Daniel was buried at St. Helen's Church, Sandal Magna, nearby.

In the 1911 Census Mary Ann was living with two of her sons in Sandal. Philip was 30 and a brick setter at a brick works, and Alfred was 14 and a minder of the condenser at a cloth factory.

All this brought to mind the extraordinary lengths that some people go to drink the canal water today. I remember reading of a couple on a canal boat (a wide beam I think) that had gone to great lengths to design a system that would pump up water from the canal and go through numerous filters for this and that and or reducing porosity so that they could be self sufficient in water. To install the system seemed to be very expensive, and to renew the filters would be an ongoing expense too. My thoughts were Why!!

Our tank I think is a sort of standard 120 gallon tank that is made of stainless steel. At the start of the year I pour some bleach down the hose we have and follow that with a little water to be able to pass it all through the hose to sterilise it. I really should do the same to the tank I suppose but I never have done. At sea they brought in regulations that meant you should sterilise water loaded aboard. The liquid used was basically bleach and you just added it in as you loaded it. On 'Holderness' we don't do that. We load the water, first flushing the hose out, and then we drink it. I see that many boats have fitted filters for their water, and even hire boats. I don't understand that as the water we load is potable water so that should be fine. Canal and River Trust spent all that money on those awful tin plate water points that cut your hand and must have cost even more in replacing the padlocks all the time. We were told that it was all to prevent back pressure of syphoning, (or something), to keep the water safe to drink. Water does taste different in some areas, but still not poisonous. We live at home with extremely hard water so maybe we are more immune to it. My father worked in Birmingham where the water comes from the Welsh Hills by pipeline. The family home was outside and we lived with water from the Severn Trent Water Co. My dad used to bring a water carrier home with him for a time as he said the tea was much nicer with the welsh water.

Is been self sufficient in water going to be the next thing after the solar charging of batteries etc. Of course the sun can be used to condense water to purify it, but it is more use going in to the batteries. What water do you drink?

With a bit of luck we will make a flying visit to 'Holderness' to see what state it is in after the winter and not having been able to check. Hopefully we would have been told if it had sunk, if only to get us to get it clear of the berth! I have my fingers crossed.