Eckington Jan 2021

The Doorsteppa
37 HISTORY
I have recently come across an article in The Voice
newspaper from September 1976 which was
written by its Editor the late Dave Froggatt. Dave
was renowned in the village for many, many years
for his humourous takes on village issues both in
prose and poetry. ‘Killamarsh Council’ were often
his target.
This article was written during the water shortage
of 1976 during the heatwave that summer with his
usual humour and wit.
HOW YOU CAN HELP SAVE WATER NOW
Following the official recognition of the state of the
drought, an emergency meeting of Killamarsh
Council was called to discuss the situation and adopt
suitable measures.
By an almost unanimous vote it was agreed that the
Common Market could not be held responsible, but
reservations were made regarding the deleterious
effect of decimalization, coupled with the constant
floating of the pound.
To offset the high cost of water rationing (cost of
standpipes, water carts etc.) it was decided to effect
distribution of the ration once a week in the form of
blocks of ice. These could be stored by the
consumer and thawed out as necessary. It was
pointed out that there were residents without a
refrigerator and these were advised to stack
the blocks of ice in the bath (first removing the coal)
and allow the cold tap to maintain a steady drip
on to the ice.
Encouragement is to be given to the formation of
communal bath parties, reminiscent of the war-time
street efforts. Holes would be dug at strategic
points, lined with polythene, and the entire
population of the larger streets could bathe together
once a fortnight. Smaller streets would have to
make do with a more intimate, but none-the-less
effective, communal rub-down with wet flannels.
N.C.B. Westthorpe report a profit so far this year,
mainly due to the sale of surplus (once used) bath
water, much in demand for car radiators due to its
self-sealing qualities. This is likely to cease on the
temporary closing of the baths with the adoption of
the car-wash scheme whereby miners are taken by
bus to the automatic car wash. Batches of up to 20
miners can nip through revolving brushes in the time
taken to clean one car, averaging out at a water
consumption of one cupful per miner. Surface
workers are expected to ablute at a commensurately
quicker rate to maintain output and productivity.
For the duration of the drought, it was resolved that
the library shall issue books only by authors in the
A-G and P-Z sections. The closure of the H-O section
should result in immediate water saving.
Dave
Froggatt
A bus at
the Pond
The Woodall Pond Management Committee are to
be congratulated. Their various methods of water
conservation, involving anglers being required to
squeeze each fish landed (saving 20 per cent)
employing bird-scarers to stop them drinking (saving
20 per cent) and anti-evaporation polythene covers
(saving 75 per cent), are all working well.
As these measures result in a total saving of 115
per cent, they are now stockpiling water. It is an
impressive sight to see accumulated water heaped
above the banks. The local bus company is running
excursions to the pond and it proving quite a tourist
attraction.
Despite some success in village efforts to conserve
water, it was finally decided that a concerted civic
effort should be made to pray for rain. As the Clerk
to the Council has some connections in this field, it
was left to him to contact the necessary authority.
This article is reproduced with the kind permission
of the Froggatt family and has been edited for
reasons of space.
Visit our website – www.killamarsh.org
Tel: 0114 4185359 • Mob: 07903 858276 • Email: thedoorsteppa@gmail.com • Web: www.thedoorsteppa.co.uk