Monument record MDR13523 - Filter beds (disused), Mill Meadow, Kedleston Park

Filter beds for the treatment of sewage, constructed c. 1940 to serve the army camp sited in front of Kedleston Hall. Now situated within a small plantation of scrub woodland. These beds include two large circular brick tanks, each 9.9 metres in diameter and 1.1 metres in height. The two tanks are connected and originally fed by a cast iron pipe. On the opposite side of the brook, there are several surviving brick tanks built at a higher level, this time square rather than circular on plan, but concealed by dense vegetation. These tanks may have been retaining or processing tanks before the sewage was fed across the brook to the circular tanks. The tanks still contain an enormous amount of clinker, which presumably acted as a medium for retaining bacteria. There are two further groups of brick tanks that lie to the southeast. One of these groups of tanks are lined with fine gravel, again acting as a filtration medium and probably forming a tertiary stage in the treatment of sewage. (1)