WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.480 Welcome to today's Deep Dive Learner. I want 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:05.820 you to just imagine for a second that you are 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:10.300 standing in this really serene, green park. Right, 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:13.220 just a quiet, grassy space. Yeah, exactly. You've 00:00:13.220 --> 00:00:15.519 got your feet planted firmly on the ground. Maybe 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:17.559 you're walking your dog, you know, surrounded 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:20.559 by this nice, quiet, grassy embankment. Sounds 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:24.210 peaceful. It does. But directly over your head, 00:00:24.309 --> 00:00:28.269 casting these massive, brutalist shadows is a 00:00:28.269 --> 00:00:31.789 totally chaotic, intertwining canopy of concrete 00:00:31.789 --> 00:00:34.369 pillars. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's a multi -level highway. 00:00:34.549 --> 00:00:37.850 And you can hear the deafening roar of thousands 00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:40.509 of cars hurtling past you at 70 miles an hour. 00:00:40.630 --> 00:00:43.030 That is quite the contrast. It really is. And 00:00:43.030 --> 00:00:45.649 if you were to magically hit fast forward on 00:00:45.649 --> 00:00:47.390 the world around you from that exact spot, you 00:00:47.390 --> 00:00:49.890 wouldn't just see buildings go up and come down. 00:00:49.890 --> 00:00:53.049 Right. You see the exact needs, the anxieties, 00:00:53.289 --> 00:00:56.570 and even the obsessions of society shifting right 00:00:56.570 --> 00:00:58.630 before your eyes. It's like the geography itself 00:00:58.630 --> 00:01:01.210 is a mirror. It really is. I mean, we have this 00:01:01.210 --> 00:01:04.549 tendency to think of geography as static, like 00:01:04.549 --> 00:01:06.030 a lake is a lake, a hill is a hill. A park is 00:01:06.030 --> 00:01:09.489 a park, yeah. Exactly. But in a dense urban environment, 00:01:09.870 --> 00:01:12.530 a piece of land is constantly being rewritten. 00:01:13.510 --> 00:01:16.670 It's basically a living document that records 00:01:16.670 --> 00:01:18.849 what a civilization values at any given moment 00:01:18.849 --> 00:01:22.609 in time. Yes. Exactly. And that brings us to 00:01:22.609 --> 00:01:25.469 the mission of today's Deep Dive. We are looking 00:01:25.469 --> 00:01:29.269 at one very specific, incredibly layered living 00:01:29.269 --> 00:01:32.750 document. They really are. You curated a just 00:01:32.750 --> 00:01:34.969 fascinating stack of sources for us today. We've 00:01:34.969 --> 00:01:37.250 got archival data, engineering classifications, 00:01:37.670 --> 00:01:40.069 historical timelines, all centered around this 00:01:40.069 --> 00:01:42.750 one place called the Aston Reservoir in Birmingham, 00:01:42.769 --> 00:01:44.689 England. Yeah. And when you first look at the 00:01:44.689 --> 00:01:47.459 data you've gathered, it reads like a pretty 00:01:47.459 --> 00:01:49.959 straightforward geographical summary, you know? 00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:52.180 Right, just dry fats. Yeah, you have the coordinates, 00:01:52.340 --> 00:01:54.359 you have a list of alternative names, a specific 00:01:54.359 --> 00:01:56.980 capacity measurement, and like a timeline of 00:01:56.980 --> 00:01:59.060 ownership. Right, but when you actually piece 00:01:59.060 --> 00:02:02.599 that timeline together, it is an absolutely wild 00:02:02.599 --> 00:02:05.079 ride. Oh, totally. Like the sources outline a 00:02:05.079 --> 00:02:07.599 journey from 19th century public health infrastructure 00:02:07.599 --> 00:02:12.659 straight into like 1950s extreme adrenaline sports. 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:15.979 Which is just crazy to think about. It is. Finally, 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:19.439 to a modern -day green space that has been just 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:22.879 completely swallowed by a massive highway architecture, 00:02:23.340 --> 00:02:25.460 all happening in the exact same spot. So our 00:02:25.460 --> 00:02:29.360 goal today is to figure out how one single reservoir 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:32.479 transforms so dramatically and what that ultimately 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:35.099 tells you about the mechanics of how cities evolve. 00:02:35.240 --> 00:02:37.740 It's a brilliant case study, really. Because 00:02:37.740 --> 00:02:41.219 to truly understand what the Aston Reservoir 00:02:41.219 --> 00:02:44.819 is today, sitting quietly under all that concrete, 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:47.659 we really have to look at why it was carved out 00:02:47.659 --> 00:02:49.819 of the earth in the first place. Right. And that 00:02:49.819 --> 00:02:52.479 begins with the absolute most fundamental human 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:54.620 requirement there is, which is clean drinking 00:02:54.620 --> 00:02:57.080 water. Okay, let's unpack this. Because if we 00:02:57.080 --> 00:02:59.280 rewind to the 19th century, your sources show 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:01.740 this reservoir was originally built by a private 00:03:01.740 --> 00:03:04.120 entity, right? The Birmingham Water Works Company. 00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:06.099 That's right. Situated in the parish of Aston. 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:08.539 Yeah. And it explicitly says they were extracting 00:03:08.539 --> 00:03:11.460 drinking water from the river tame. But then 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:14.120 there is this very specific pivot in the text, 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:17.900 January 1st, 1876. On that exact New Year's Day, 00:03:18.180 --> 00:03:20.939 the entire operation is purchased by the Birmingham 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:23.400 Corporation Water Department. Right. And that 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:26.780 transition from a private, you know, profit -driven 00:03:26.780 --> 00:03:31.539 company to a public municipal corporation, that 00:03:31.539 --> 00:03:34.120 is a monumental shift in how the city functioned. 00:03:34.189 --> 00:03:36.710 I was thinking about this, and the best analogy 00:03:36.710 --> 00:03:39.990 I could come up with for the modern day is, imagine 00:03:39.990 --> 00:03:43.250 if a city today suddenly realized that internet 00:03:43.250 --> 00:03:46.810 access was so critical to physical survival that 00:03:46.810 --> 00:03:50.689 they forcibly bought out a massive private telecom 00:03:50.689 --> 00:03:52.629 giant. Oh, that's a great way to put it. Right, 00:03:52.629 --> 00:03:54.569 like they just walked in and said, we are taking 00:03:54.569 --> 00:03:56.550 over the broadband network because our citizens 00:03:56.550 --> 00:03:58.750 literally cannot survive without it. We can't 00:03:58.750 --> 00:04:01.110 leave this in private hands. Yeah. Taking over 00:04:01.110 --> 00:04:04.629 a massive private water company in 18 - feels 00:04:04.629 --> 00:04:07.569 like that extreme level of municipal intervention. 00:04:08.009 --> 00:04:10.509 You are securing a vital resource for the public 00:04:10.509 --> 00:04:12.849 trust. What's fascinating here is the broader 00:04:12.849 --> 00:04:15.270 context of what was actually happening in Birmingham 00:04:15.270 --> 00:04:17.449 right at that moment. You were looking at the 00:04:17.449 --> 00:04:20.089 absolute peak of the Industrial Revolution. Birmingham 00:04:20.089 --> 00:04:22.930 was known as the workshop of the world. So you 00:04:22.930 --> 00:04:25.730 have this explosion of factories, metalworking, 00:04:26.149 --> 00:04:28.889 manufacturing. Constant growth. Exactly. And 00:04:28.889 --> 00:04:32.009 because of that, urban populations are skyrocketing. 00:04:32.230 --> 00:04:34.410 People are flocking from the countryside into 00:04:34.410 --> 00:04:37.370 the city for work, and the existing infrastructure 00:04:37.370 --> 00:04:40.149 is just buckling under the sheer weight of this 00:04:40.149 --> 00:04:42.829 massive influx of human beings. Which, okay, 00:04:42.870 --> 00:04:45.509 that brings up a huge question for me. The text 00:04:45.509 --> 00:04:48.029 explicitly says the original private company 00:04:48.029 --> 00:04:50.209 was extracting drinking water from the river 00:04:50.209 --> 00:04:53.019 tame? Yes. But wait a minute. We are talking 00:04:53.019 --> 00:04:56.180 about the 19th century industrial boom in Birmingham. 00:04:56.839 --> 00:04:58.699 You've got factories, you've got mills, you've 00:04:58.699 --> 00:05:03.220 got this unprecedented, unregulated urban density. 00:05:03.540 --> 00:05:05.560 Oh, I see where you're going. Yeah. I am pushing 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:07.699 back hard on the idea that this was a safe setup. 00:05:07.949 --> 00:05:10.509 What on earth was the water quality of the River 00:05:10.509 --> 00:05:13.050 Thame actually like back then? What? Because 00:05:13.050 --> 00:05:14.689 the idea of drinking straight out of a river 00:05:14.689 --> 00:05:16.829 flowing right through an industrial powerhouse, 00:05:16.850 --> 00:05:19.110 I mean, that sounds like a recipe for disaster. 00:05:19.230 --> 00:05:21.449 And you are entirely right to push back on that. 00:05:21.529 --> 00:05:24.569 It was a recipe for disaster. And that exact 00:05:24.569 --> 00:05:28.709 tension is the why behind that January 1st, 1876 00:05:28.709 --> 00:05:31.930 purchase. You have to remember the horrific realities 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:34.850 of 19th century waterborne diseases. Right, like 00:05:34.850 --> 00:05:37.990 cholera. Exactly. We were talking about devastating 00:05:37.990 --> 00:05:41.149 outbreaks of cholera and typhoid that just routinely 00:05:41.149 --> 00:05:43.490 swept through Victorian cities. Terrifying. It 00:05:43.490 --> 00:05:46.589 was. And early on, private water companies often 00:05:46.589 --> 00:05:49.689 treated water purely as a commodity. They provided 00:05:49.689 --> 00:05:51.509 it intermittently, like sometimes only for a 00:05:51.509 --> 00:05:54.199 few hours a day. Wow, really only a few hours. 00:05:54.259 --> 00:05:57.959 Yeah. And often without the rigorous large scale 00:05:57.959 --> 00:06:00.839 filtration standards that a massive city requires 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:03.180 to prevent an epidemic. So they were selling 00:06:03.180 --> 00:06:05.519 water to make a profit, not necessarily to keep 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:07.860 the city healthy. Precisely. The motivation was 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:10.439 financial return for shareholders, not universal 00:06:10.439 --> 00:06:12.939 public health. The water from the River Tame 00:06:12.939 --> 00:06:15.339 would have been increasingly compromised by industrial 00:06:15.339 --> 00:06:18.399 runoff and human waste as the city expanded upstream. 00:06:18.420 --> 00:06:21.759 Oh, that's grim. Very. So when a city municipalizes 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:24.079 its water, when the Birmingham Corporation Water 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:26.139 Department steps in and buys the Aston Reservoir, 00:06:26.420 --> 00:06:28.699 it's a massive philosophical shift. Right. It 00:06:28.699 --> 00:06:31.600 is the city acknowledging that providing clean, 00:06:31.819 --> 00:06:33.839 filtered water isn't just a business opportunity. 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:37.120 It is baseline public health infrastructure. 00:06:37.370 --> 00:06:40.910 It is about the sheer survival of the urban workforce. 00:06:41.329 --> 00:06:43.250 It's the moment the city government basically 00:06:43.250 --> 00:06:45.850 says, we have to own the tap or we aren't going 00:06:45.850 --> 00:06:48.310 to have a city left. Exactly. They are establishing 00:06:48.310 --> 00:06:51.430 a public water department to actively sustain 00:06:51.430 --> 00:06:54.709 that growing population. The Aston Reservoir 00:06:54.709 --> 00:06:57.250 was no longer just a private asset sitting on 00:06:57.250 --> 00:07:00.189 a ledger. It became a public lifeline. OK, so 00:07:00.189 --> 00:07:02.689 now that the city owned this massive public health 00:07:02.689 --> 00:07:06.029 asset, the immediate problem became. How do you 00:07:06.029 --> 00:07:08.629 safely contain that much water right next to 00:07:08.629 --> 00:07:11.410 a dense residential parish without accidentally 00:07:11.410 --> 00:07:13.790 washing everyone away? That's the big engineering 00:07:13.790 --> 00:07:15.850 challenge, yes. Right. So to understand how this 00:07:15.850 --> 00:07:17.810 reservoir shaped the area, we have to look at 00:07:17.810 --> 00:07:20.569 it sheer physical scale. And the engineering 00:07:20.569 --> 00:07:22.850 required to build and maintain a reservoir of 00:07:22.850 --> 00:07:25.550 this era is staggering, especially considering 00:07:25.550 --> 00:07:27.899 the tools they had available. Yeah, your source 00:07:27.899 --> 00:07:30.139 material gives us some hard numbers to work with 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:33.120 here. It says the Aston Reservoir sits in a bend 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:36.240 of the river and it has a capacity of one hundred 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:38.279 and eleven thousand four hundred cubic meters. 00:07:38.300 --> 00:07:41.279 Right. Or one hundred and forty five thousand 00:07:41.279 --> 00:07:43.920 seven hundred cubic yards. Now, let's try to 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:45.879 actually visualize one hundred and eleven thousand 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.199 four hundred cubic meters. It's a lot. It's huge. 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:52.019 Imagine a massive big box Ikea warehouse. Right. 00:07:52.220 --> 00:07:54.379 The kind that takes up an entire city block. 00:07:54.420 --> 00:07:57.060 OK. Yeah. Now imagine sealing the door. and filling 00:07:57.060 --> 00:07:59.399 that entire warehouse wall to wall, floor to 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:02.199 ceiling, entirely with water. That's terrifying. 00:08:02.560 --> 00:08:05.319 It is. It is a staggering volume to just have 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:06.980 sitting in the middle of a neighborhood. It is 00:08:06.980 --> 00:08:09.319 an immense physical presence in the landscape. 00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:11.939 And remember, water is incredibly heavy. Right. 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:15.000 One cubic meter of water weighs exactly one metric 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.850 ton. So you are talking about over 111 ,000 tons 00:08:18.850 --> 00:08:21.589 of water that aggressively wants to go somewhere. 00:08:21.709 --> 00:08:23.370 Which leads to the part of the text that really 00:08:23.370 --> 00:08:25.490 made me pause. It says, all of this water, this 00:08:25.490 --> 00:08:28.110 entire flooded IKEA warehouse is held back by 00:08:28.110 --> 00:08:30.449 an earth -filled dam. Ah, yes. And I have to 00:08:30.449 --> 00:08:32.730 be honest, earth -filled dam sounds terrifyingly 00:08:32.730 --> 00:08:35.049 flimsy. It does sound a bit rudimentary. It sounds 00:08:35.049 --> 00:08:37.809 like what a kid builds at the beach is a wall 00:08:37.809 --> 00:08:40.470 of packed dirt really enough to safely hold back 00:08:40.470 --> 00:08:42.850 what the Environment Agency and as recently as 00:08:42.850 --> 00:08:46.490 November 2020, mind you, still officially classifies 00:08:46.490 --> 00:08:50.350 as a large raised reservoir. I completely understand 00:08:50.350 --> 00:08:52.590 why the term earth fill sounds like a precarious 00:08:52.590 --> 00:08:55.309 pile of loose soil. But I can assure you the 00:08:55.309 --> 00:08:57.789 engineering is incredibly sophisticated. OK, 00:08:57.950 --> 00:08:59.730 I'm listening. When we talk about an earth fill 00:08:59.730 --> 00:09:02.750 dam holding back a large raised reservoir, we're 00:09:02.750 --> 00:09:05.850 talking about a meticulous designed multi -layered 00:09:05.850 --> 00:09:09.509 structure that utilizes sheer mass and specialized 00:09:09.509 --> 00:09:12.269 materials. So it's not just Victorian laborers 00:09:12.269 --> 00:09:14.570 with shovels piling up mud until water stops 00:09:14.570 --> 00:09:16.929 flowing? Not at all. Earth -filled dams rely 00:09:16.929 --> 00:09:19.830 on very specific internal zoning. You engineer 00:09:19.830 --> 00:09:22.610 a core. Okay. In Victorian times they use a technique 00:09:22.610 --> 00:09:25.090 called puddling. Puddling? Yeah. They would create 00:09:25.090 --> 00:09:28.860 a central core of highly impermeable clay. Laborers 00:09:28.860 --> 00:09:30.899 and sometimes animals would literally stomp and 00:09:30.899 --> 00:09:33.299 need wet clay until all the air bubbles were 00:09:33.299 --> 00:09:36.320 forced out. Wait, literally stomping on it? Literally 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:39.379 stomping on it. This creates a watertight seal 00:09:39.379 --> 00:09:41.539 that actually stops the water from seeping through. 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:44.600 Okay, so the clay stops the leak. But what stops 00:09:44.600 --> 00:09:47.019 the sheer force of the water from just pushing 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:51.240 the clay over? I mean, 111 ,000 tons of water. 00:09:51.360 --> 00:09:53.220 That is where the rest of the earth fill comes 00:09:53.220 --> 00:09:56.509 in. Surrounding that watertight clay core, you 00:09:56.509 --> 00:10:00.009 have layers of increasingly coarse heavy materials. 00:10:00.110 --> 00:10:04.509 Like what? Sands, gravels, dense rocks. These 00:10:04.509 --> 00:10:06.830 outer layers provide the massive structural weight 00:10:06.830 --> 00:10:09.610 needed to push back against the hydrostatic pressure 00:10:09.610 --> 00:10:12.129 of the reservoir. Ah, hydrostatic pressure. I 00:10:12.129 --> 00:10:14.269 hear that term a lot in these engineering documents, 00:10:14.350 --> 00:10:16.389 but let's clarify that for the listener. What 00:10:16.389 --> 00:10:19.220 are we actually talking about in practice? Hydrostatic 00:10:19.220 --> 00:10:21.059 pressure essentially means that the water at 00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:23.399 the bottom of the reservoir is pushing outward, 00:10:23.899 --> 00:10:25.860 with exponentially more force than the water 00:10:25.860 --> 00:10:28.259 at the top. Because of the weight above it. Exactly. 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:30.299 The deeper you go, the heavier the water above 00:10:30.299 --> 00:10:32.799 it is. So the bottom of the dam is constantly 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:35.799 under immense outward pushing force, essentially 00:10:35.799 --> 00:10:38.059 trying to blow out the base of the structure. 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:40.759 OK, that makes sense. The sheer compacted weight 00:10:40.759 --> 00:10:43.379 of the earth fill dam is designed to counteract 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:45.940 that exact outward force. So the sheer weight 00:10:45.940 --> 00:10:48.799 of the engineered earth is locked in a permanent 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:50.919 wrestling match with the sheer weight of the 00:10:50.919 --> 00:10:53.820 water. Exactly. And your sources note that the 00:10:53.820 --> 00:10:55.879 reservoir sits in a bend of the river. Right. 00:10:55.980 --> 00:10:58.360 That's a crucial geographical detail that really 00:10:58.360 --> 00:11:01.519 speaks to the ingenuity of the engineers. A bend 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:04.379 in a river is a natural catch point. Oh, I see. 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:07.320 From a design standpoint, you Realizing the natural 00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:10.179 topography nestling the reservoir into that curve 00:11:10.179 --> 00:11:13.259 allows you to maximize the amount of water you 00:11:13.259 --> 00:11:16.360 can hold while minimizing the length of the artificial 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:18.860 dam you have to build to close it off. Ah, so 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:21.679 you do less work for more water. Precisely. It's 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:23.919 working in tandem with the landscape, not just 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:26.129 imposing brute force upon it. OK, so we have 00:11:26.129 --> 00:11:29.250 this massive, quiet, meticulously engineered 00:11:29.250 --> 00:11:32.990 pool of essential drinking water, a solemn monument 00:11:32.990 --> 00:11:35.490 to Victorian public health and survival. Indeed. 00:11:35.690 --> 00:11:37.210 But here's where it gets really interesting. 00:11:37.370 --> 00:11:39.409 Oh, yes, the pivot. Because if you keep reading 00:11:39.409 --> 00:11:41.990 the timeline in your sources, the narrative takes 00:11:41.990 --> 00:11:45.409 this incredibly sharp, almost bizarre left turn. 00:11:45.450 --> 00:11:48.529 To reach the mid -century transition. Yes. As 00:11:48.529 --> 00:11:51.850 the decades roll on, this crucial survival infrastructure 00:11:51.850 --> 00:11:54.190 starts having what looks like a total identity 00:11:54.190 --> 00:11:57.519 crisis. It really does. The text notes, it became 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:00.259 known by multiple names over the years. We've 00:12:00.259 --> 00:12:02.960 got Salford Lake, Salford Park Pool, and Salford 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:05.899 Bridge Reservoir. Right. It transitions completely 00:12:05.899 --> 00:12:08.159 away from being a drinking water source and becomes 00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:11.360 a public boating lake. But the absolute peak 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:15.100 of this era? is in the 1950s. The newsreels. 00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:17.700 The newsreels. The sources linked to these old 00:12:17.700 --> 00:12:20.659 black -and -white British Pathé newsreels, specifically 00:12:20.659 --> 00:12:23.840 from the year 1952. And what are they doing on 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:26.080 this Victorian drinking water reservoir? It's 00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:28.659 fantastic. Speedboat racing, outboard engine 00:12:28.659 --> 00:12:30.940 meetings, giant crowds lining the earth -filled 00:12:30.940 --> 00:12:33.360 dam enjoying extreme water sports. That is a 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:35.460 phenomenal sensory contrast when you picture 00:12:35.460 --> 00:12:38.820 it. It's amazing you swap out the quiet, utilitarian 00:12:38.820 --> 00:12:41.820 solemnity of a Victorian waterworks for the absolute 00:12:41.899 --> 00:12:45.940 deafening roar of 1950s hydroplane engines. You've 00:12:45.940 --> 00:12:48.740 got these little wooden boats kicking up massive 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:51.600 wakes, the smell of engine exhaust in the air, 00:12:51.960 --> 00:12:54.399 and just thousands of people cheering. It is 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:57.039 sheer spectacle. It is. And if we connect this 00:12:57.039 --> 00:13:00.159 to the bigger picture, this transition from utility 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.580 to adrenaline tells you everything you need to 00:13:02.580 --> 00:13:05.159 know about post -industrial cultural shifts. 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:08.519 How so? Like, what sparks that specific leap? 00:13:08.860 --> 00:13:11.299 Well, think about the progression of urban society. 00:13:11.820 --> 00:13:14.899 In the 1870s, the city's primary overarching 00:13:14.899 --> 00:13:17.779 concern is basic survival. All right. Getting 00:13:17.779 --> 00:13:20.019 clean water to factory workers so the city doesn't 00:13:20.019 --> 00:13:23.460 collapse from disease. Exactly. But by the 1950s, 00:13:23.620 --> 00:13:26.379 the infrastructure and the economy have matured 00:13:26.379 --> 00:13:28.539 significantly. You have the post -World War II 00:13:28.539 --> 00:13:31.000 boom. You have the solidification of the weekend 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:33.820 as a protected concept. Oh, right. Free time. 00:13:33.980 --> 00:13:36.159 Suddenly, the working class has disposable time 00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:38.460 and disposable income. And crucially, this is 00:13:38.460 --> 00:13:40.139 Birmingham. This is the heart of the British 00:13:40.139 --> 00:13:42.799 motor industry, right? You've got massive car 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:44.879 factories nearby. These people know engines. 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:48.059 Yes. You have a massive population of highly 00:13:48.059 --> 00:13:51.539 skilled, mechanically minded workers. The 1950s 00:13:51.539 --> 00:13:54.039 were an era defined by a fascination with speed, 00:13:54.460 --> 00:13:56.720 mechanics, and motorized leisure. That makes 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:59.639 perfect sense. And a large, flat body of water 00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:02.600 inside city limits is a rare and highly valuable 00:14:02.600 --> 00:14:05.659 asset. Once the Aston Reservoir was no longer 00:14:05.659 --> 00:14:08.139 the sole lifeline for drinking water because 00:14:08.139 --> 00:14:11.039 the city had built larger, more modern reservoirs, 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:13.409 further out it became an urban playground. It's 00:14:13.409 --> 00:14:16.549 like the ultimate peacetime flex. Like we used 00:14:16.549 --> 00:14:19.429 to need this muddy pool just to not die of cholera. 00:14:19.730 --> 00:14:22.309 And now we're literally strapping V8 engines 00:14:22.309 --> 00:14:24.730 to wooden planks and racing them across it for 00:14:24.730 --> 00:14:27.429 fun. That's a great way to look at it. Post -industrial 00:14:27.429 --> 00:14:30.629 society begins repurposing its obsolete or secondary 00:14:30.629 --> 00:14:33.110 survival infrastructure for public leisure. Putting 00:14:33.110 --> 00:14:35.570 roaring speedboats on a 19th century reservoir 00:14:35.570 --> 00:14:38.649 is the ultimate expression of mid -century optimism. 00:14:39.070 --> 00:14:41.769 But, as your source text makes very clear, the 00:14:41.769 --> 00:14:44.009 roaring speedboats didn't last forever. No, they 00:14:44.009 --> 00:14:45.909 didn't. In fact, boating is no longer allowed 00:14:45.909 --> 00:14:48.330 at all today. Which brings us to its most recent 00:14:48.330 --> 00:14:50.889 identity shift. So what does this all mean for 00:14:50.889 --> 00:14:53.370 the reservoir today? The conversation in the 00:14:53.370 --> 00:14:56.929 text shifts to its current state. Today, the 00:14:56.929 --> 00:14:59.509 area around the water is Salford Park. Right. 00:14:59.769 --> 00:15:02.720 But the defining detail... The thing that utterly 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:05.039 dictates its modern existence is what surrounds 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:07.759 it. Or rather, what's above it. Exactly. The 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:10.120 text explicitly states that the reservoir sits 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:12.840 immediately adjacent to the Aston Expressway, 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:15.779 the M6 motorway, and the Gravelly Hill interchange, 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:18.899 which is famously, or perhaps infamously, known 00:15:18.899 --> 00:15:21.740 as Spaghetti Junction. Yes, one of the most complex, 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:25.240 massive, and visually imposing pieces of highway 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:27.580 infrastructure in the entire United Kingdom. 00:15:27.899 --> 00:15:30.080 I really want to paint this picture for you the 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:32.320 listener because the juxtaposition is jarring. 00:15:32.860 --> 00:15:35.399 Imagine you are standing in this serene green 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:38.519 space in Salford Park. Okay. You're walking alongside 00:15:38.519 --> 00:15:41.360 an earth -filled dam that was painstakingly stomped 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:44.659 and compacted by Victorian laborers in the 1800s. 00:15:44.980 --> 00:15:47.620 Right. And directly over your head, casting these 00:15:47.620 --> 00:15:51.299 permanent, massive shadows, is a chaotic, multi 00:15:51.299 --> 00:15:54.279 -level canopy of concrete pillars holding up 00:15:54.279 --> 00:15:56.600 highways with thousands of cars hurtling past. 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:59.720 It's a crazy image. The scale of the concrete 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.690 completely swallows the park. And I have to ask 00:16:02.690 --> 00:16:04.950 about the engineering here. I'd assume building 00:16:04.950 --> 00:16:07.970 a massive multi -lane highway directly over a 00:16:07.970 --> 00:16:11.090 Victorian reservoir was a huge headache. Wouldn't 00:16:11.090 --> 00:16:13.470 the constant vibrations and sheer weight of the 00:16:13.470 --> 00:16:16.250 M6 motorway damage a 150 -year -old earth -filled 00:16:16.250 --> 00:16:18.549 dam? You would certainly think so, but it actually 00:16:18.549 --> 00:16:21.009 comes down to the sheer density of that Victorian 00:16:21.009 --> 00:16:23.169 clay core we talked about earlier. The stomped 00:16:23.169 --> 00:16:26.110 clay. Yeah, the puddling. Because it was engineered 00:16:26.110 --> 00:16:29.049 with such immense compacted mass to hold back 00:16:29.049 --> 00:16:33.830 111 ,000 tons of water, it is incredibly resilient 00:16:33.830 --> 00:16:36.570 to ground level vibration. The pillars of the 00:16:36.570 --> 00:16:38.590 highway are sunk deep into the bedrock around 00:16:38.590 --> 00:16:41.529 it, but the reservoir itself remains remarkably 00:16:41.529 --> 00:16:44.450 stable. What this really speaks to is the relentless 00:16:44.450 --> 00:16:46.929 mechanism of urban layering. Urban layering? 00:16:47.549 --> 00:16:49.590 Yeah. Cities don't erase their history. They 00:16:49.590 --> 00:16:51.769 literally build their future directly on top 00:16:51.769 --> 00:16:54.080 of it. I've heard urban planners describe cities 00:16:54.080 --> 00:16:57.320 as lazy rivers of capital. Developers and highway 00:16:57.320 --> 00:16:59.539 planners always take the path of least resistance. 00:17:00.019 --> 00:17:02.019 That is the perfect analogy for what happened 00:17:02.019 --> 00:17:05.980 here. In the 19th century, waterways and reservoirs 00:17:05.980 --> 00:17:08.680 were the absolute focal points of civil engineering. 00:17:09.460 --> 00:17:11.440 They were the pride of a growing city. Right. 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:14.440 But by the late 20th century, the automobile 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:16.819 became the undisputed king of urban planning. 00:17:17.130 --> 00:17:19.809 The Gravely Hill Interchange Spaghetti Junction 00:17:19.809 --> 00:17:22.950 was designed to handle the massive, unprecedented 00:17:22.950 --> 00:17:25.329 flow of national commercial traffic. And when 00:17:25.329 --> 00:17:28.650 you are routing massive motorways through a dense, 00:17:28.789 --> 00:17:31.450 historic city like Birmingham, you are looking 00:17:31.450 --> 00:17:34.509 for blank space on a map. Exactly. It is infinitely 00:17:34.509 --> 00:17:37.069 cheaper and politically easier to drive massive 00:17:37.069 --> 00:17:39.609 concrete pillars through an existing public park 00:17:39.609 --> 00:17:42.309 and reservoir than it is to buy up and demolish 00:17:42.309 --> 00:17:45.140 500 historic homes. Precisely. the path of least 00:17:45.140 --> 00:17:47.619 resistance. The reservoir didn't move, but the 00:17:47.619 --> 00:17:49.799 city's entire priority system shifted around 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:52.579 it. What was once the absolute focal point of 00:17:52.579 --> 00:17:55.180 the parish of Aston, the literal wellspring of 00:17:55.180 --> 00:17:58.039 public health, and later the vibrant, noisy center 00:17:58.039 --> 00:18:00.240 of mid -century leisure, has now been relegated 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:02.559 to a quiet, almost forgotten background feature. 00:18:02.619 --> 00:18:05.180 It's just wild to think about. It is nestled 00:18:05.180 --> 00:18:08.180 beneath the soaring concrete arches of the M6. 00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:11.880 The sheer scale of the automotive highway dwarfs 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:14.500 the scale of the water. It really is wild when 00:18:14.500 --> 00:18:16.759 you zoom out and look at the whole life cycle 00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:18.720 we've covered today. From extracting drinking 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.880 water from the polluted river tame in 1876 just 00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:24.900 to survive. Yeah. To the roaring exhaust fume 00:18:24.900 --> 00:18:27.359 filled hydroplane races captured on black and 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:31.720 white film in 1952. To a peaceful slightly forgotten 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:35.559 modern day park sitting quietly in the oppressive 00:18:35.559 --> 00:18:38.420 shadow of Spaghetti Junction. It is a profound 00:18:38.420 --> 00:18:41.099 evolution and it highlights how resilient these 00:18:41.099 --> 00:18:44.000 geographic spaces have to be to survive the changing 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.460 eras of a city. And for you listening, I think 00:18:46.460 --> 00:18:48.660 the real takeaway here is that every single city 00:18:48.660 --> 00:18:50.700 has these layered spaces. Absolutely. You might 00:18:50.700 --> 00:18:52.599 be walking your dog right now in a local park. 00:18:52.660 --> 00:18:54.200 Maybe you're even walking across an earth filled 00:18:54.200 --> 00:18:56.880 dam while thousands of commuters drive over your 00:18:56.880 --> 00:18:59.660 head on a modern expressway. And absolutely none 00:18:59.660 --> 00:19:01.640 of you, not the commuters, not the dog walkers, 00:19:01.700 --> 00:19:04.160 are aware of the 19th century public health crises 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:06.980 or the 1950s adrenaline sports burry right beneath 00:19:06.980 --> 00:19:09.599 your feet. It's a wonderful reminder to look 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:11.599 closer at the mechanisms of our own surroundings. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.079 But actually, looking at the source material 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:16.950 you provided, there's one final detail buried 00:19:16.950 --> 00:19:19.609 at the bottom that I find incredibly compelling. 00:19:20.430 --> 00:19:23.069 Oh. What stands out to you? Well, at the very 00:19:23.069 --> 00:19:25.710 bottom of the text, there's a categorized list 00:19:25.710 --> 00:19:27.769 of other municipal reservoirs scattered across 00:19:27.769 --> 00:19:30.569 Birmingham. Okay. It mentions places like Brookvale, 00:19:31.150 --> 00:19:34.009 Frankley, Lyford, and Witten Lakes. But there 00:19:34.009 --> 00:19:36.309 is one specific entry that immediately caught 00:19:36.309 --> 00:19:39.710 my eye. It lists the Perry Bar Reservoir, and 00:19:39.710 --> 00:19:42.009 right next to it in parentheses, it simply says 00:19:42.009 --> 00:19:45.670 the word Covered wait covered like fully enclosed 00:19:45.670 --> 00:19:49.210 under a roof. Yes an underground fully sealed 00:19:49.210 --> 00:19:53.680 body of water. Whoa And this raises a truly fascinating 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:55.779 question. We've just spent all this time uncovering 00:19:55.779 --> 00:19:58.059 the vibrant, chaotic, multi -layered history 00:19:58.059 --> 00:20:00.500 of the Aston Reservoir. We talked about the fight 00:20:00.500 --> 00:20:02.940 for water rights, the massive crowds watching 00:20:02.940 --> 00:20:05.720 speedboats, the concrete highway pillars being 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:08.440 driven into the earth, and all of that rich, 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:11.579 observable history happened simply because the 00:20:11.579 --> 00:20:14.440 Aston Reservoir is sitting out in the open, forced 00:20:14.440 --> 00:20:16.240 to interact with the changing city above it. 00:20:16.359 --> 00:20:18.480 Right. It was a blank canvas for whatever the 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:21.349 city wanted to do with it. Exactly. So if a piece 00:20:21.349 --> 00:20:23.529 of water sitting out in the open accumulates 00:20:23.529 --> 00:20:26.490 that much wild history, what hidden histories, 00:20:27.049 --> 00:20:29.329 what forgotten Victorian engineering or strange 00:20:29.329 --> 00:20:32.390 pastimes are lurking inside the covered reservoirs 00:20:32.390 --> 00:20:35.049 of the city? Oh, wow. What happens to a massive 00:20:35.049 --> 00:20:37.849 piece of urban geography when you put a concrete 00:20:37.849 --> 00:20:40.470 lid on it and completely seal it off in the dark 00:20:40.470 --> 00:20:43.279 for a century? That is an incredibly eerie and 00:20:43.279 --> 00:20:46.180 fascinating thought to leave on. Just massive 00:20:46.180 --> 00:20:48.980 dark silent chambers of water sitting underneath 00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:51.779 the streets of the city completely untouched 00:20:51.779 --> 00:20:55.059 by the 1950s hydroplanes or the modern highways 00:20:55.059 --> 00:20:57.440 just waiting in the dark. Well, we will have 00:20:57.440 --> 00:20:59.059 to leave that mystery for you, the listener, 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:02.700 to explore on your own. Thank you so much for 00:21:02.700 --> 00:21:05.339 joining us on this deep dive. Next time you're 00:21:05.339 --> 00:21:07.960 standing in one spot in your own city, just remember 00:21:07.960 --> 00:21:10.319 to look around, look up at the highways, look 00:21:10.319 --> 00:21:13.000 down at the ground, and keep questioning the 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:14.880 hidden history of your own surroundings.