Posted by Robert Dilley on March 11, 2006 at 05:14:19 from 216.211.66.97 user rdilley.
In 1988 I was on sabbatical leave at the University of Exeter and rented an old farmhouse near the edge of Exmoor. The water was supplied by a ram somewhere down in the Exe valley. It kept conking out [there's another word for Ed] leaving us (literally) high and dry.
If the system was still in Devon in the late 80s it seems reasonable to suppose it was around in the Lake District in the 30s.