15 Oct Report: [cont. from p 151] ago in the Note from the Editor development of human technology in between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic times whereby the area The November newsletter should be available at the meeting consisted mainly of forests where there was hunting and on Feb 10 2010. Articles and material for inclusion should fishing and the food was mainly nuts, grains and be given to any Committee member, or to The Editor at shellfish. The Neolithic era began with the rise in early Greenman Farm, Wadhurst TN5 6LE or you can e-mail farming, tree clearance, soil erosion and the choking of [email protected] by 30 Jan please. rivers. There was still hunting and gathering. The Bronze Age was found outside the Weald. Iron Age was where landscapes were formalised with a money based economy with hill forts for defence such as Oldbury Hill in Kent which has one of the finest iron age hill forts in the Medway. The woodland supports oak, birch and pine with a variety of fungi and plants from the former heathland including heather and berries. Many of the artifacts found in this area are now housed in the Tunbridge Wells museum. Jenny Hollands

Bewl Water [cont] The Nature Reserve. Part of the Reservoir has been set aside as a nature reserve; this area can be observed Yalding pipeline. Increasing demand for water from a raised and well built bird hide situated at grid coupled with the droughts of the early 90s raised reference 67553211, with car parking in a quarry just the need for a new source of water to help short of the access path. replenish Bewl. The £18 million Yalding scheme, completed in 1994, enables water to be pumped The Future. Several ideas have been considered for from a new pumping station on the Medway at increasing the capacity of the reservoir, but there is no Yalding through 20 kilometres of 1.2 metre definite plan (September 2009) for doing so. diameter pipeline. When all pumps are running an Facts and Figures impressive 250 million litres per day can be seen Areas supplied thundering down the cascades in Goose Creek The Medway Towns (Chatham, Rochester and Gillingham), local refilling Bewl at a staggering 1% per day. villages Hawkhurst, Goudhurst and Pembury, North Maidstone Water Out. The major use of water from the reservoir and Darwell Reservoir for the Hastings area is for release into the River Bewl via the spillway at the Dates downstream side of the dam. Typically amounts from .. Scheme first considered 1946 over 10 million litres to 70 million litres per day may be .. Planning started 1962 added to the river flow, which eventually joins the .. Enabling Act of Parliament 1968 .. Construction started 1973 Medway at Yalding. The addition of this water to the .. Dam completed 1975 river at dry times of the year permits Southern Water .. A tree feller was killed 1976 Services to abstract water downstream at Springfield in .. Lake first full 1978 Maidstone for treatment at their Burham Works. This .. Hurricane in October 1987 destroyed the concrete water is used for industrial and domestic supplies to facing on the dam over a 75 metre section. Water level had to be lowered to do repair at a cost of £200,000 Southern Water's customers in the Medway towns and .. Visitor Centre completed 1999 additionally Mid Kent Water Co takes some for supply to Size north Maidstone, Snodland and Aylesford. .. Water 770 acres or 312 hectares .. Total area of site 1200 acres or 486 hectares Darwell Link. After the Yalding Pipeline was .. Perimeter of water 17 miles or 27 kilometres completed Southern Water laid two 15-kilometre .. Round reservoir route 12.5 miles or 20 kilometres pipelines from Bewl Water to Darwell Reservoir at Capacity Robertsbridge. The continuously welded plastic .. Water capacity 6900 million gallons or 31,300 million pipelines leave Bewl from a pumping station litres behind the dam, before running below the .. Maximum depth 97 feet or 30 metres footpath at Chingley Wood and crossing beneath .. Top Water Level 240 ft above sea level or 73 metres the water to the south east of the lake. The pipe Really useful facts! leaves Bewl for Ticehurst where a "break .. You could stack six London buses on top of one pressure" tank marks the beginning its downhill another in the deepest part of Bewl and they would all be underwater! run to Robertsbridge. The last half of the pipeline, .. The surface area of Bewl is the same size as 436 where the pressure becomes greater, is ductile Wembley football pitches! iron. This scheme ensures over 30 million litres .. When full Bewl holds the equivalent of 1 gallon (4.5 per day can be moved from Bewl to Darwell in dry ltrs) of water for every man, woman and child in the times, to serve the Hastings area. world! .. It would take 55,200 million pint milk bottles to hold Local Provision. Just inside the main access the contents of Bewl and, if placed next to each other, gate to Bewl, the South East Water Treatment these would go around the world 105 times! works provides water for Pembury, Lamberhurst, .. The Amazon discharges an amount equivalent to the capacity of Bewl into the Atlantic in 2 ½ minutes – the Matfield, Paddock Wood, Brenchley, Flimwell, Thames would take 132 hrs to discharge the same Goudhurst, Kilndown and the area towards amount into the North Sea! Cranbrook. Water for this is taken from the Information for this article was extracted from a Southern Reservoir and mixed with water from boreholes Water Information Sheet, from Courier articles of the period, 120m deep into the Ashdown Sands, behind the from old maps and from conversations. Martin Turner Fishing Lodge. This water is pumped to Kippings Cross and Flimwell storage reservoirs. Visit our website - www.wadhurst.info/whs

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