34. 23-12-20 Funeral Service For Ted Flaxman

The funeral service for Ted Flaxman was held today at St Mary the Virgin in Cottisford. Although the pandemic restricted attendance at the service, Ted’s family kindly arranged for the service to be recorded. Ted was a founding member of the Water Conservators and was Master for the year 1996/97. He had a distinguished Civil Engineering career working with consultants Binnie

& partners where he was a Partner in their Victoria-based office in London.

He was passionate about the use of technology and was the founder of ISTT

(The International Society for Trenchless Technology), becoming its first Chairman (and subsequently Chairman Emeritus).

He was also responsible for the development of blue plaques to record the historic importance of water conduits in the City – the first of these was erected at Aldermanbury in 2010, the second in Cheapside (to mark the “Great Conduit”) in 2014 and the third in Fleet Street (to mark the “Fleet

Conduit”) in 2018. I first met Ted at the unveiling of the Great Conduit plaque. The 14^th century conduit standard lies some 15 feet below the pavement and was first discovered at the end of a sewer in the late 19^th century, then rediscovered during excavations for a nearby development at the beginning of the 21^st century. Ted was keen to uncover whether there was any evidence that it was one of Bazelgette’s sewers that ran into the structure, but after some investigations together, it appeared most likely that it was a local sewer.

It was a very beautiful service today at the church at Cottisford, with many loving tributes from his family. And as a Water Conservator Ted was greatly appreciated and will be sorely missed.