Description:Not everyone was in favour of the Waterworks in the Staffordshire Potteries. Amongst papers relating to the Staffordshire Potteries Waterworks Company is a ‘List of Petitions against the Bill’.
The List dated 12th May 1847 names the North Staffordshire Railway Company as one of the bodies opposed to the development. In addition, a gentleman named Alfred Hales who owned land in Norton Green is listed as opposing the Bill. Companies and private owners were against the development of waterworks because of the loss of revenue for the railways and potential damage to land in the area.
However, many other people were in favour of the intended Waterworks. James Simpson was a Civil Engineer from Westminster who ‘had extensive experience with Water Works on a large scale’. Simpson wrote a paper promoting the development of Waterworks in the Staffordshire Potteries, drawing on his experience working with waterworks in London, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Bristol. Having examined ‘the Plans and Estimates and all details connected with the Staffordshire Potteries Waterworks’, Simpson states that the Company had his ‘entire approval’. Simpson had also ‘tested the Water’ in the springs that would supply the Water Works and concluded that it was ‘excellent’.