The culverting of the Brook

In 1849, at a time when it would have become an open sewer, the brook was culverted for some of its length as  a result of the cholera outbreak, whether actually in Leamington or owing to the fear of it reaching the town.  An editorial comment in the Courier of 18th August 1849 reads:
 
"We are much pleased to find that the most objectionable parts of the Milverton and Whitnash brooks, so long and so well known as eye-sores to Leamington, are now no longer in existence in their past objectionable shape, but that efficient and enduring sewers have been constructed in those parts of the town, to the great relief and benefit of the adjoining house property."

The following week (25th August 1849) the Courier printed detailed accounts of the costs of the work on both brooks. It is clear from the report that the work on the Milverton Brook is specifically the stretch from Beauchamp Hill (then called Beauchamp Street) to Warwick Place, i.e. our Dell. One item on the list is: 

"[Labour] in excavating and bricklaying in the Milverton Brook, including the labour in wheeling spoil from Warwick Terrace:  £10 3s 9½d". 

At the end of the report this detail is amplified:

 "Executed Quantities 120 yards lineal of Elliptic Sewer, 4.9 by 3.6, constructed in the Milverton Brook between Beauchamp-street and Warwick-st bridges, including the removal of about 400 cubic yds. of spoil from Warwick-terrace into the said brook, and including the construction of Fifty-five of 12 inch drain (being a continuation of an existing drain) into the said sewer."

120 yards is about the length of the Dell, so the accounts definitely cover only the Dell section of the culverting, even though it later went all the way from Kenilworth Road to the Leam. 

We have always assumed that the flat area of the Dell must have come about when the Albany Terrace cellars were excavated, but it looks as though the initial burial of the culvert was the result of the excavation of Warwick Terrace cellars. Incidentally, 400 cubic yards would cover the entire present flat area of the Dell to a depth of about six inches.

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