| Date |
Event |
| 1531 |
Statute of Sewers passed, enabling the appointment of permanent Commissioners of Sewers |
| 1626 |
Charles I gives a commission to Cornelius Vermuyden to drain the Hatfield Level |
| 1629 |
Court of Sewers for the Level of Hatfield Chase founded |
| 1696 |
The [Old] Nottingham Waterworks Company established |
| 1725 |
Earliest records of The Sewers Commission of the County of Lincoln, City of Lincoln and County of the said City and part of the County of Nottingham acting for the wapentakes of Manley, Corringham and Aslacoe (the Brigg Court of the Lincolnshire Commissioners of Sewers) |
| 1783 |
Trent Navigation Company established by Act of Parliament |
| c.1790 |
Zion Hill Water and Marble Works established in Nottingham |
| 1824 |
Nottingham New Waterworks Company established |
| 1826 |
Trent Waterworks Company established in Nottingham; Thomas Hawksley, Engineer until 1880, designed England's first constant high pressure water supply |
| 1831-1832 |
Nationwide cholera epidemic |
| 1832 |
Poor Law Commission set up |
| 1832 |
The Trent Waterworks Company opened a constant pumped water supply system to taps in streets and yards in Nottingham |
| 1835 |
Municipal Corporations Act |
| 1842 |
Edwin Chadwick's report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Classes |
| 1844 |
Royal Commission on 'Large Towns and Populous Districts' |
| 1845 |
J.R. Martin's report on 'The State of Nottingham and Other Towns' |
| 1845 |
Nottingham Water Act authorises amalgamation of water companies |
| 1845 |
Nottingham Waterworks Company established |
| 1847 |
Nottingham Borough Sanitary Committee established |
| 1847 |
Nationwide typhus epidemic |
| 1848 |
Nationwide cholera epidemic |
| 1848 |
Public Health Act |
| 1857 |
First modern pumping station built in Nottingham, Bagthorpe/Basford at Haydn Road, Radford, engineered by Thomas Hawksley, extracting water from sandstone beds |
| 1861 |
Land Drainage Act amended the powers of the Commissioners of Sewers and allowed for elected, as opposed to appointed, Drainage Boards |
| 1862 |
Act of Parliament to Incorporate the Participants of the Level of Hatfield Chase, establishing the Corporation of the Level of Hatfield Chase |
| 1866 |
The Board of Conservators of the Trent Fishery District established following the Salmon Fishery Act (1865) |
| 1869 |
Royal Commission on Water Supplies |
| 1872 |
Nottingham and District Sewerage Act. Nottingham and Leen Valley Sewerage Board established. Leased 638 acres of land at Stoke Bardolph for a sewage farm |
| 1879 |
Nottingham Improvement Act, giving powers to Nottingham Corporation to take over water undertakings |
| 1880 |
Nottingham Corporation Waterworks formed from the Nottingham Waterworks Company, Engineer Marriott Ogle Tarbotton (Borough Engineer from 1859)
Stoke Bardolph sewage plant became operational (the start of today's modern sewage system) |
| 1884 |
Papplewick Pumping Station opened, designed by Tarbotton |
| 1898 |
Burton Joyce Pumping Station opened, the first to pump water from boreholes to Nottingham |
| 1899 |
Derwent Valley Water Board formed to begin supplying Nottingham, Leicester, Sheffield and Derby with water |
| 1906 |
Wilford Suspension Bridge, Nottingham opened |
| 1923 |
Board of Conservators of the Trent Fishery District reconstituted as the Trent Fishery Board, following the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act |
| 1930 |
Land Drainage Act sets up Catchment Boards to have oversight over Main Rivers |
| 1931 |
Trent River Catchment Board established |
| 1936 |
Inauguration of new Sewage Disposal works at Stoke Bardolph, a new pumping station at Sneinton, and new sewers in Nottingham |
| 1940 |
Trent River Catchment Board takes over the powers of the Trent Navigation Company and the Brigg Court of Lincolnshire Commissioners of Sewers |
| 1941 |
Trent River Catchment Board takes over the powers of the Corporation of the Level of Hatfield Chase |
| 1948 |
River Boards Act. Drainage, fisheries and pollution responsibilities brought together under single authorities |
| 1951 |
Trent River Catchment Board and Trent Fishery Board amalgamate as the Trent River Board. |
| 1963 |
Water Act establishes River Authorities |
| 1965 |
Trent River Board becomes the Trent River Authority |
| 1967 |
Derwent Scheme started (storage reservoir and treatment works at Church Wilne, Derby to supply river water for Nottingham) |
| 1973 |
Water Act establishes new Water Authorities with comprehensive management of the entire water cycle. |
| 1974 |
Severn Trent Water Authority formed, taking over the powers of the Trent River Authority, the City of Nottingham Water Department, and the Derwent Valley Water Board |
| 1983 |
Water Act restructures Severn Trent Water Authority to bring it in line with nationalised industries |
| 1989 |
Severn Trent Water formed to take responsibility for water supplies and sewerage
National Rivers Authority established, with responsibility for managing water resources, pollution control, flood control and land drainage |
| 1996 |
National Rivers Authority replaced by the Environment Agency |