Hollingworth Lake - History

History

In 1793, an Act of Parliament sanctioned the construction of the Rochdale Canal. Hollingworth Lake with its three earth dams was a main feeder source completed in 1800, four years before the canal. The lake covers an area of 130 acres (53 ha) and the path around it originally measured 2.5 miles (4 km). In places the lake was 25 feet (7.6 m) deep, with the average depth being about 10 feet (3.0 m). When first constructed, it was capable of holding 400 million gallons (1,800 Ml) of water. The site was not a natural choice for a reservoir, as there was no natural hollow and plans exist which indicate the reservoir could have been built in the Ealees Valley which did. Consequently three large earth embankments were built to enclose the reservoir. The main embankment, Hollingworth Bank, is approximately 36 feet (11 m) high and about 220 yards (200 m) in length. Fens Bank is 30 feet (9 m) high and 220 yards (200 m) long while Shaw Moss Bank is 26 feet (8 m) high and 140 yards (130 m) long. The lake surface is about 557 feet (170 m) above sea level, A steam engine was installed to lift water 45 feet (14 m) into a 4-mile (6.4 km) channel which fed it into the summit pound at Chelburn. The pumping engine was demolished around 1910.

Local mill owners feared the canal would take water from the rivers and streams that powered their mills, and succeeded in defeating the first two attempts to obtain an act to authorise building the canal. The third attempt succeeded, largely because the canal company alleviated the millowners' concerns, and the Act contained conditions on the siting of reservoirs, so they would not interfere with water supplies to the River Roch, River Irk or River Medlock. The lake, or "The Lodge" when first built, benefitted some millowners by supplying water to mills close to the canal and on the new low-level road from Todmorden to Littleborough. Houses were built for railway workers, reservoir workers, and workers in the new factories and cotton mills. The Lodge became known as The Lake, and became a popular place to walk.

By the 1920s, the Rochdale Canal was in serious decline, and in 1923 the Oldham and Rochdale Corporations Water Act authorised the sale of Hollingworth Lake and seven other reservoirs in the vicinity to the local authorities for use as a public water supply. The company received £396,667, from which it paid £98,334 to the Manchester Ship Canal Company in compensation for the loss of the water supplied by the Rochdale company, who retained the water rights to certain local streams, and could draw on the reservoirs under certain exceptional circumstances.

A major programme of civil engineering work to strengthen and reshape the earth dams was carried out in 1985. The outlet from the reservoir was rebuilt, and the level of the overflow was reduced. The work cost £2.5 million, and resulted in the lake being closed for leisure activities for almost a year. A ten-year statutory inspection of the reservoir in 2011 identified the need to improve the outflow arrangement so that water levels could be lowered more quickly in an emergency or after heavy rainfall. The £1.25 million project included a 9-foot (2.7 m) concrete tower, with equipment on top raising its height by 9 feet (2.7 m) but concerns expressed by the Friends of Hollingworth Lake and local councillors resulted in a tower half the height of the original design and clad in stone to fit in with the surroundings. The four-month project began in autumn 2011 and the water level was reduced by 6.6 feet (2.0 m) while the work was in progress, but the lake remained open for watersports.

United Utilities is responsible for the maintenance of the reservoir whose main function is to supply water to the Rochdale Canal and has never been used to provide drinking water for the public supply network.