Lanhydrock House | National Trust
Having had a Bio-Bubble Waste Water and sludge treatment facility that was first commissioned for the new visitor season of 1998, and having consistently treated the waste from Lanhydrock to an exceptional standard despite the annual visitor numbers of 220,000 passing the design horizon initially set; the Trust had no qualms building on that success when they had to choose how to process the additional waste from their new Lanhydrock Café & Cycle Hub facilities.
The construction of 10 km of green and blue cycle trails within woodland on the Lanhydrock Estate has attracted many more people to enjoy the splendours of this spectacular Cornish Victorian mansion house. The café and cycle hire shop built to serve visitors to the cycle hub designed more with families and novice cyclists in mind meant that further treatment capacity was essential. The decision was taken to run the waste downhill to the original Bio-Bubble Plant location and expand that facility rather than install an additional Plant at the cycle hub to the north. One of the advantages of this approach was that it dealt with the greater than expected annual visitor numbers caused by the more recent upsurge in interest in Trust Properties. This new expansion adding a further Balance Tank and another treatment Reactor take the population equivalent of the Bio-Bubble up to 1,230 PE. Given that the majority of the waste is derived from toilet block, café and restaurant facilities the strength of the waste is normally around 1200 mg/l BOD some 4 times stronger than that of standard domestic strengths, after treatment the final effluent typically < 10 mg/l BOD < 1 mg/l NH3 – N is discharge via a long pipe to the river Fowey.
Part of the cycle hub project was to restore the original 18th century carriage drive to lead up to the relocated entrance, as always we were very pleased to work for the Trust and feel sure that the recent works which have been undertaken to the Trusts exemplary standards will elevate Lanhydrock House up the top ten list of must do things in Cornwall.
