IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Ravenhall Gardens, WARWICK, CV34 7DD

These structures form part of a seemingly semi-abandoned industrial site near Warwick that may have been a sewage farm or water treatment plant. They look in good condition and may still be functioning although there was no noise or activity in evidence.

This fenced-off pond forms part of a seemingly semi-abandoned industrial site, possibly a former sewage works or water treatment plant, at Heathcote outside Warwick. Nature has reclaimed the pond with ducks and other wildlife enjoying the seclusion.

This tarmac road was originally built to give access to the sewage works but as demand increased the sewage works were replaced and both it and the road became redundant. A new housing estate is just over the hedge on the left.

Nigel Mykura went a bit further Image and Colin Craig went further still in 2009: Image and Image A full-blown sewage works for Leamington Corporation is first shown here on an OS map of 1939; the house not till 1968. The site is on a low summit, allowing effluent to drain into the Tach Brook, thence to the River Avon above the village of Barford. It became redundant in the 1970s after the opening of the sewage works at Longbridge southwest of Warwick, built to serve both towns (and now operated by Severn Trent Water). It's not clear how the sewage reached the works. From 1871 Leamington Board of Health had by necessity pumped sewage from the works at Edmondscote Image by a rising main to the Earl of Warwick's land at Heathcote, a rise of 20m over a distance of about 3km, where it was reportedly treated and sold to farmers. Treatment may have consisted of being spread on the land to be naturally irrigated by rain. Old maps show no feature that can be interpreted as a pipeline, yet there were reports of bursts. If it was underground, where did it come to the surface? Did it supply the 1939 works? Alternatively from 1871, could it have been only a short length to an area where solids could be loaded on to carts and conveyed to Heathcote? Refs: Lyndon F. Cave. Royal Leamington Spa, a history; Phillimore, 2009 ISBN 978-1-86077-505-5 Contemporary newspapers, town council minutes, www.old-maps.co.uk

A Barratt Homes development in progress. On the right is part of the brand new Heathcote Primary School. The view is across Harbury Lane, now with a 40mph speed limit, reduced from 50mph. Whether that will make it less of a racetrack remains to be seen.

One of several closes on the southern side of Warwick Gates facing busy Harbury Lane, but screened from it by an existing hedgerow beefed up with trees and shrubs. The footpath runs the whole length, some 1200 metres.

Poets Meadow (no apostrophe) is one of several small new residential developments along the south side of Harbury Lane. Four or five different developers are getting a bite of the cherry.

Several developers are at work south of Harbury Lane. Together, their estates will form a whole new suburb, extending Leamington ever southwards.