WATER STEPS, MILEHOUSE ROAD, DEVONPORT.
Arrived in Plymouth, a meeting of the Water Committee was hastily convened, and it was ascertained that four Plymouth contractors would be able to supply about one hundred men to proceed to Roborough. This force was inadequate, and consequently the Mayor proceeded to Devonport, and having stated the case to General Sir Richard Harrison, K.C.B., commanding the district, at once received a promise of the services of a military force of two hundred—one hundred of the Welsh Regiment from the North Raglan Barracks, and another hundred of the Royal Marines, the latter by permission of Colonel Colwell, second colonel commandant.
On Wednesday the efforts of Mr. Bellamy, ably supplemented by those of Mr. Duke and Mr. Shadwell, to make rapid progress with clearing the leat near the well-known Rock Hotel at Head Weir, had been somewhat retarded. Many of the labourers employed were ill-clad, and showed signs of weakness, and when it was found that no sufficient provision had been made to supply them with food, they threw down their shovels and returned to Plymouth. Others, however, worked gallantly on through the night. On Thursday morning, things looked more promising. At an early hour the new contingent of workmen engaged on the previous day, and the two detachments of the military—the men of the Welsh Regiment under Lieutenants de la Chapelle and Ready, and the Marines commanded by Captain Kelly and Lieutenants Mullins and Drake-Brockman—were on the spot, and these, being divided into gangs, set vigorously to work on the leat at various points. During the morning large commissariat supplies were received from Plymouth, and the men, besides having a plentiful supply of food, were served at intervals with hot coffee.
Some serious difficulties were encountered, and heavy labour on the part of the civilian labourers and the soldiers was entailed. There were nearly ten miles of leat to be cleared, and much of the snow was frozen into hard solid masses, against which but slow headway could be made. In some places the leat was completely buried under frozen snow of great depth, and for hundreds of yards snow rose in drifts from ten to twelve feet in height, burying the rails guarding the leat, and rendering it difficult to trace its course accurately. The young Welsh soldiers worked well, and the services of the Marines were found invaluable.
By nightfall, when work ceased, it was found that the leat had been cleared for a mile and a half from the Head Weir towards Yennadon. On Yennadon Down Lieutenant de la Chapelle's men had cleared the way nearly as far as Dousland, and near the Roborough Reservoir a clearance of three miles had been made. At about six o'clock the troops and civilian labourers, numbering about 450, returned to Yelverton Station, and ultimately, after a vexatious, but, fortunately, not serious mishap, reached Plymouth.
Fears were expressed during Thursday night that there would be another snowstorm on Dartmoor, and this proved to be the case. A violent gale raged on the moor, and three feet of snow fell, undoing much of what the heavy toil of the previous day had accomplished. Much of the snow that had been removed from the leat had drifted back, and part of the work had to be done over again.
On Friday morning, a special train left Millbay with 200 general labourers. There were also 100 Marines under Lieutenants Sousbie and Garrett; 150 men of the Dorset Regiment, under Captain Lushington and Lieutenants Mangles and Household; and 50 men of the Welsh Regiment, under Lieutenant Woodville. The civilians were under the direction of Mr. S. Roberts, and the Mayor of Plymouth, Mr. G. R. Barrett (deputy-chairman of the Water Committee), Mr. W. H. Mayne, Mr. R. Monk, and Mr. G. Bellamy, junior, accompanied the party. The train had a rough time, on account of the heavy gale that was blowing, and just before Bickleigh Station was reached it was brought to a standstill by a snow-drift. About fifty of the labourers had to cut a way through the snow, enabling the party, after nearly an hour's delay, to proceed on their journey.
On arriving at Yelverton the weather was found to be so bad that, after some consultation, it was considered advisable to send the military back to Plymouth, and, after clearing the rails for the return of their own train, they, with about fifty civilian labourers, started on the return journey. Mr. Roberts, however, with his men proceeded along the leat to a point near Clearbrook, but so fierce was the storm that work could not be commenced, and an adjacent barn was used as a temporary refuge. In less than two hours work was begun, and by four o'clock in the afternoon a clear way of four feet in width was made from Yelverton Bridge to Roborough Reservoir, a distance of six miles. A contingent under the direction of Messrs. T. and W. Shaddock, and another directed by Mr. Duke had been progressing most satisfactorily, and, when night approached and success was within view, all the men expressed their readiness to work all night if needful, so that the leat might be all clear before the morning. This, however, was not necessary, and before seven o'clock a clear passage for the water had been made along the whole ten miles of leat. The water had still to be brought on, and a hundred men volunteered to remain, under Mr. Bellamy, and work on until a good stream was running. Their services were accepted, and the other two hundred men, with the Mayor and Messrs. Roberts and Duke returned to Plymouth by a special train at nine o'clock. The great piece of work thus happily accomplished had been ably assisted by the Mayor of Plymouth, Councillors G. R. Barrett, and R. A. Monk, and Messrs. A. R. Debnam, S. Roberts, Duke and Shaddock, contractors under the Corporation. Mr. Bellamy, with his staff, Messrs. Prigg, A. G. Davey, S. Chapman, and G. A. Picken, worked without intermission, and had an arduous and an anxious time. Messrs. Barrett, Monk, and Mayne, managed the commissariat department, which was no light task, with admirable efficiency. Before the party of workers broke up the Mayor thanked, in the name of the town of Plymouth, all those who had assisted in the labour of averting a great calamity. Thanks were also offered to the railway officials for the efficiency of the train service. It was not until Sunday morning that a full supply of water began to flow into the cisterns, but after Saturday night all apprehension had ceased, and within a few hours the discomforts of the previous few days, as far as want of water was concerned, were removed.
Although great and growing inconvenience was caused towards the latter end of the week to all the inhabitants of Plymouth by the partial deprivation of water, things never reached the same pass as they did in the famine of 1881. Stonehouse had plenty of water, and was able to assist in supplying the western end of Plymouth. By order of the Local Board standpipes were on the Saturday erected at the Malt House, and in Millbay Road, Union Place and Eldad Hill, and all day long residents of Plymouth were supplied from these. In some parts of Plymouth families were in great difficulty, and water borrowing, where practicable, went forward on a large scale. Messrs. Polkinghorne, at their brewery in Bedford Street, Messrs. Denniford & Son, mineral water manufacturers of Russel Street, and Mr. Lewis, aërated water manufacturer of Athenæum Street, supplied hundreds of the inhabitants, free of charge, from their artesian wells.
At a meeting of the Plymouth Borough Council subsequently held, formal votes of thanks were passed to a number of citizens, as well as the military authorities, for the services they had rendered, and a rate of remuneration to the soldiers for their valuable service was fixed upon.