ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the archaeological evidence for the water supply to Roman Lincoln and looks at how the problem was solved in later generations. The population of Lincoln, some 14,000 when the water works were set up, grew by the turn of the century to almost 50,000. So the Corporation was forced to look further afield for a purer supply, and in 1908 it obtained an Act to establish water works at Elkesley in Nottinghamshire, 22 miles to the west. Yet a copious supply of good water was almost a sine qua non for a self-respecting Roman town. To achieve it, little expense would be spared. The water table is something like 45ft down; and one might well ask why the Romans chose, on the face of it, to pump a good 70ft up from Roaring Meg over a mile away, rather then 45ft up in the town centre.
