Description

HERTFORD

TL3313NE THE NEW RIVER
817-1/6/347 Gauge House at the River Lee at NGR
TL 3399 1381

II

Gauge house with former dwelling house of gauge keeper above.
1856. Constructed by the New River Company, William Chadwell
Mylne, Architect and engineer. Yellow-brown stock brick,
English bond, Welsh slated hipped roof with brick chimneys
with projecting bands.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys above brick-arched bridge undercroft.
First floor has 3 recessed plain glazed sash windows, with
rubbed brick flat arches above, ground floor has recessed sash
windows left and right with pilasters at corners and deep plat
band at first-floor level except on south elevation. This has
recessed storey height central panel, with inner arched
recess, with triple semicircular header arches and central
pierced moulded patterned cast-iron grille. Projecting brick
segmental header arches forming bridge over central water
inlet from River Lee to the New River.
North elevation faces River Lee with 3 first-floor sash
windows and blank ground floor below plat band. Canted intakes
project into the river at ground level.
INTERIOR: ground floor contains the gauge which measures the
intake of water from the River Lee; it consists of 2 iron
boats 5m long floating at Lee level which are joined by a
chordal segmental iron beam 9m long, and the rise and fall
with the level of the Lee controls the flow of water over the
sluice which can be further adjusted by weights hung from the
gate, the daily intake from the Lee being 22 1/2 million
gallons.
The New River runs between stone and concrete abutments.
HISTORICAL NOTE: pumping stations were constructed mid C19 to
assist the flow, the nearest being at Broadmead close to
Chadwell Spring, the original source of supply, 1 1/2 miles
east on the outskirts of Ware.
The New River was constructed in 1608-13 by Sir Hugh Myddelton
to provide water for London, with a 38 mile water course from
Chadwell Spring between Ware and Hertford. By early C18 the
supply had become inadequate. In 1739 a new Act allowed water
to be drawn from the River Lea near Hertford, to be measured
by gauges, designed by Robert Mylne (1733-1811). The River Lee
Act of 1855 gave the New River Company and the East London
Waterworks Company the right to take the whole of the Lee
water, with the exception of that required for navigation. An
improved cut was made across the King's Meads, and a new Gauge
House, designed by William Chadwell Mylne (1761-1862) was
built in 1856.
(The industrial archaeology of the British Isles: Branch
Johnson W: Industrial Archaeology of Hertfordshire: Newton
Abbot: 1970-: 97-101 167; Thames Water: History of the New
River: London: 1985-).

Listing NGR: TL3399513808

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26682804

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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