Haslingden Old and New...

Haslingden derives from Hazeldean or Valley of the Hazels. It lies 19 miles north of Manchester in the County of Lancashire. A area at one time noted in particular for its Stone, it also played a big part in the Woollen and then later Cotton Industries from the 18th and through the 19th and early to mid 20th Century... It is steeped in Local History and can also boast to have one of the most beautiful Natural Valleys around, where thousands come and visit annually

Monday 8 June 2020

Nuttalls Tunnel - The Rising Bridge Shaft to Brynbella for Manchester Corporation Waterworks

We are grateful to the family of the late Edna Kirby (nee Constantine) for allowing us to use these photos

We are grateful to the family of the late Edna Kirby (nee Constantine) for allowing us to use these photos

*****

The tunnel approaches the river. Eleven feet below the cover
in the foreground is the bottom of the Brynbella Drive.

Haslingden chaps worked on the Haweswater pipelines

(Great Harwood to Altham section)

It will have been about 1968 and I would have been 20 years old and enjoyed every day working on the 3^rd pipeline (out of 4) which comes all the way from the Haweswater Aqueduct through to Newton (in Bowland) and then across via Great Harwood, Altham to Rising Bridge and across to Brynbella were it enters a very large tunnel which goes via Townsendfold and onward to Manchester.

It was great those days and you could get a start more or less immediate. I was advised to go and see Mr Harry Taylor (Chris Howarth’s Grandad) who lived in a small cottage on Brook Street just off Hud Hey. He was the General Foreman on the pipeline and drove a large wheel based Land-Rover which had M.C.W.W. written on the side (Manchester Corporation Water Works) the right type of vehicle you needed for the terrain I was about to experience. Told him I wanted a job, and a few details asked and then, when can you start lad? Whenever you say, OK the wages are about £18 a week and you start tomorrow. Do you know Pete Tuck? yes I know Peter. Well catch our bus at top of Hud Hey at 7 o’clock in the morning along with Peter, and when you get on site go and see the foreman Eric, spindly guy with glasses and a flat cap. OK Mr Taylor, thank you, and that was that.

Remember getting on that bus and knew quite a few of the chaps on the bus, I’ll bet there were 20 or more from Haslingden. Some were like me and just starting on that very day, Jack Bayes, John Breslin, John from Rising Bridge, big Tom Jones from Brig, Harry Warburton (a think Harry and Tom had been with the Waterworks for ages and had worked on the previous pipelines). We eventually pulled in down a country lane in Great Harwood and near to the local golf club and this is where we joined the pipeline whilst also putting in foundations to cross over the River etc. I saw foreman Eric and my first job was laying the railway track. A steel track of about 2ft gauge, a couple of you would carry these tracks and then use fishplates with four bolts going through them to connect the track together, and you laid quite a fair bit of track over the day. It was anything but plain sailing, with humps and bumps to follow the contours of the dipping golf course and fields and you needed to shore up in places with timber to get it something like a reasonable level.

After a month or two on that job, I was offered the job to drive the small Rushden train and that was a great job, and you would transport either the large Steel pipes which were probably about 30ft long with a diameter of some 5ft on bogies to the place were the main pipe laying gang were working, or alternatively you would transport skips of concrete from accessible places to the main pipe laying gang.

To start these trains in a morning you had to use a starting handle and sometimes you could not get them out after starting so you quickly took your hand off (or you would have broken your wrist) and left it and ran away as fast as your legs would carry you to a safe distance whilst shouting to everyone nearby to watch out, soon the handle would come off and fly up into the air like a missile. At other times when it had been raining the train would go into a skid and you just had no control over them and again the plan was you shouted as loud as you could to anyone in the way whilst the train was gathering uncontrollable speed and jump off it and let it crash into another train or obstacle, that was all you could do. This happened regular, sometimes it came off the tracks and you had to find the metal shoe which you placed at either side of the track and eased the train back on to the tracks.

Occasionally I was asked if I wanted to do overtime, yes please! This really brought your wages up and you then also got the pipe layers bonus and you could be going home with about £30+ which was really good money those days. The job I got was to be labourer to this chap who would come all the way from the North East to put a bitumen seal between the pipes after the welding had taken place from inside the pipe. He would come along and only do one which would take a couple of hours and then said, that’s it you can go home now.

The worst job I ever had was when the pipes were all joined together after welding and bitumen seals etc, you had to go inside the pipe with just a miners lamp and got down on your spread out knees whilst a small amount of water which had been put in the pipes which went between your legs and you had to clean the pipes in readiness for completion, it was so dark and you went along for what seemed ages before all of a sudden (maybe two hours later) you would see a chink of light In the distance, and that chink got bigger and bigger and eventually you had reached the next open manhole. You got out and your eyes had to re-adjust to the brightness. It was a little bit frightening that job, you always had in the back of your mind, what if someone really turned the tap on and 38,000 gallons per hour come through the pipe.

The were times when it was really boring and that was when you were rained off and cabined up all morning and eventually sent home at 2pm, you just drank coffee, played cards and tried to have the crack.

I’ll never forget on one occasion a few of us were approached by a local farmer near Altham, who did not have any water connection at his farmhouse and he said, Is there any chance of fixing me a pipe from your pipe so I can get water at my farmhouse and I will give you a few hundred pounds if this can be arranged. Can you imagine that some of the guys literally thought this could have been achieved. You would need to use many reducing valves, but even then you would be struggling and probably if you had attempted it may well have flooded Accrington in the process…

Eventually we had landed with the pipes at the side of the Martholme Grange night club and that’s were me and M.C.W.W. parted company, but another interesting job along the way.

*****

Photo example of one of the 4 pipes

Photo shows the size of the pipes, which if you can imagine there are four running side by side.

This photo was taken from somewhere up near Kirby Lonsdale, but gives you an idea.
(Photo: United Utilities)

Slag heaps on Northfield Road, Rising Bridge

For years I wondered what those large piles of muck were which lie to the Accrington side of the childrens play area on Northfield Road!

I later found out - it was all the spoils that they took out whilst drilling the Nuttalls tunnel which had been piled to the sides of Northfield Road (prior to the childrens play area being built many many years later).

this is a photo I took back in 2003 showing the slag heaps

Sunday 7 June 2020

Reservoirs - Our Grane Reservoirs

This photo shows all three reservoirs
Photo: 2nd April 2004 (B.Yorke)

This map is from 1844 and is pre Calf Hey and Ogden Reservoirs
(Click over to enlarge)

Calf Hey Reservoir

Building work completed in 1860
Measures: 23 acres
Height of Dam in ft = 50
Volume in mill.gals = 133.50
Height above sea level = 800ft

Top water level = 243.84 m. (a.o.d.)
Max depth: 13.26 m
Catchment area: 870 acres

also more details extracted from the Irwell Valley Water Board Report of 1939:
Earth embankments and puddle core walls, completed in 1859.
The first sod cut by Thomas Aitken on 18th May 1854.
Average rainfall: 52.5 inches
Top water level: 800.00ft above Ordnance Datron.
Length of Embankment: 1025ft.
Maximum depth: 42ft.
Capacity: 133.5 million gallons.

Photo: B.Yorke

Calf Hey with little to NO water
1976 (low) 1984 (empty) 1990 approx (empty)

Spring 1974

Photo: thanks to Arthur Kirby

Mel kindly sent this one in many years ago and it shows Calf Hey Res
low in 1976
(Photo: Mel)

Calf Hey Reservoir - Empty in August 1984
(B.Yorke)

Calf Hey Reservoir - Empty in 1984 and just starting to fill up again in December 1984.
(B.Yorke)

Calf Hey Reservoir - Empty in 1984 and just starting to fill up again December 1984
(B.Yorke)

Photo: Jackie Ramsbottom

It does seem that Calf Hey Res was also empty at sometime during the 1990's as this photo shows.
(Photo: kindly shared to us by Jackie Ramsbottom).

I believe the last time Calf Hey was emptied was back in the 1990s although I can clearly remember when Calf Hey Reservoir was emptied in the Midsummer of 1984 when we had a National drought and the North West Water Authority (as it was then called) took advantage of that situation to let the reservoir completely empty so they could carry out necessary repairs which had to be made to the Reservoir. I am glad now I took these photos at the time...
Here the photos show it completely empty during August 1984 and a couple more showing the reservoir starting to fill up again during December 1984.

It was always said that Brown Trout could never survive in Calf Hey because of the high acid levels and I can remember about 7 years prior to this incident (1977 ish) that some local fishing club members put a few hundred brown trout fry of approx 4" in size into Calf Hey to see how they faired. Unknown to many the fish did quite well and in later years there where odd individuals who actually did a spot of fishing now and again and where known to catch trout averaging 14 to 18" in length. I can only hope the Trout got netted prior to the reservoir becoming completely emptied in 84 although I never heard anything. I cant say as I have seen any evidence of trout in the reservoir in more recent years..

More recent photos of Calf Hey Reservoir

Photo: B.Yorke

Very low on 16th August 2003
Photo: B Yorke

Calf Hey on 14th August 2008

Photo: B. Yorke

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Ogden Reservoir
Building work completed in 1912
Measures: 53.5 acres
Height of Dam in ft = 65
Volume in mill.gals = 330
Height above sea level = 737ft
others measures:
Top water level = 224.79 m (a.o.d.)
Maximum depth = 15.24m
Catchment area: 976 acres

Water is also fed into this reservoir via a pipeline from a intake on the Musbury Brook in the next valley.

Before Ogden reservoir was built

The above map shows the area back in 1844 many years prior to the building of the Ogden Reservoir. Ogden is the only reservoir of the 3 which did have properties or ruined structures under the waters. From the map you can see that it shows a Old Mill (near Ogden Brook), it also shows Calf Hey Mill (cotton), and further along it shows Broad Holden Mill.

Above photo is a photograph of the Calf Hey Mill in ruins
see map above for area
(Photo: author unknown)

Calf Hey Mill (above), not known when built by in 1798 there were two small carding mills on this site. Extended in the 1830's by Richard Roscoe and closed in 1868. After standing empty for four years taken over by the Haslingden Grane Manufacturing Company and then various other companies until 1898 when taken over by the water companies for the new reservoir. Site cleared the same year. (information thanks to Mike Rothwell)

Above photo is of Broad Holden House which also became a victim of the new Ogden Reservoir
see map above for area
(Photo: author unknown)

Building of Ogden

This train was called "Crookfoot" and it was used during the construction of Ogden Reservoir. (Photo kindly shared by John Simpson)

(above) Some of the navvies who worked building the Ogden Reservoir

Opening of the Ogden Reservoir

Taken from a early newspaper -

Opening Ceremony at Haslingden Grane
__________

Bury and District Water Board's
Big Scheme Completed

The opening of the Ogden reservoir at Haslingden Grane, the newest and the biggest reservoir of the Bury and District
Water Board, took place on Thursday. The members of the
Water Board assembled at the reservoir, and the party included Alderman Cartin and Councillor Waddington
(representatives of Haslingden Town Council on the Water Board), Dr. Parkes (Mayor of Bury, chairman of the Water Board), Mr. Cartwright (the Board's Engineer), Mr. Haslam (Clerk to the Board) and Mr. Herbert Drake (construction contractor).
Mr. Cartwright, the Board's Engineer, read a report outlining the history of the scheme and detailing the reservoir, and said the completion of the Ogden reservoir was an epocl: in the history of the Joint Water Board. For a period of exactly 40 years this scheme had occupied the attention of the water authority. Indeed, so far back as 1853 the old Bury and Radcliffe Waterworks Co. and the mill owners on the stream were anticipating the possibility of a reservoir on this site, for in an Act obtained by them in that year, which provided for the acquisition of the Holden Wood reservoir (primarily for the use of mill owners on the stream and for the construction of the Calf Hey reservoir) it was stipulated what compensation should be given to the stream in the event of the impounding capacity of the Ogden Valley being thereafter increased. In 1872 the Bury Improvement Commissioners promoted a Bill for the purchase of the Bury and Radcliffe Waterworks undertaking and for the acquisition of lands, and for the impounding of the waters of the Ogden brook by the construction of a reservoir to be called the Ogden reservoir. During the progress of that Bill through Parliament it transpired that the Haslingden and Rawtenstall Co, who owned the large reservoir at Hapton, were willing to sell their undertaking. The Commissioners purchased this reservoir, and then applied for power to expend £100,000 on the proposed Ogden scheme. Parliament granted this power subject to a period of 15 years being fixed within which to complete the reservoir, but the purchase of Hapton reservoir had rendered any further works unnecessary for the time being. and the period allowed by Parliament well nigh lapsed without any action being taken.
The Ogden valley, about eight miles N.W. of Bury and 1 1/2 miles east of the centre of Haslingden at an elevation of 737.50 feet above ordnace datum. It has a top-water area of nearly 5 1/2 acres, and a capacity of over 300,000,000 gallons, and measures over 1 1/2 miles round to the top water level. The gathering round is 928 acres or, including the Calf Hey gathering round, 872 acrea a total drainage area of 1,800 acres.
Mr. Woods said he was one of the younger members of the Water Board, but although he had been a member of it only seven or eight years he had always taken a great interest in the work, for he was connected with the Waterworks Committee when he was a member of the Bury Town Council previous to the formation of the Joint Board. The utilisation of the site for the purpose of a reservoir was practically doomed many years ago by Mr. Hawksley a great water engineer, but further hopes were made, and then it was decided to go on with the scheme. There had been many difficulties to deal with. They had a bad bottom and at one end they had to go to an extra depth. Then they had a bog slide. When this occurred it was said in the district that something had gone wrong with the reservoir. Nothing had, however gone wrong with the reservoir embankment. The land was sliding in to the reservoir, and to prevent it crushing up the reservoir they had to incur great expense. Many other difficulties had to be got over, but that day they saw a grand piece of engineering work in its completed state. A reservoir with an earth embankment was not work that could be pushed forward. Time would form a natural embankment but although some people seemed to think the reservoir ought to have been finished years ago, no time had been lost. He had followed two hard working chairmen of the Works Committee Mr. Sykes and the late Alderman Duxbury, who did yeoman service for the Board. Those gentlemen were practically in at the start of that reservoir, and it is a pity they did not see the opening.
The Mayor of Bury, Dr. Parkes, afterwards turned on the water service, supplying parts of Radcliffe and Bury, hitherto supplied by Heywood. Recalling that on April 8th 1903, he cut the first sod for that reservoir, he said it did not often fall to the lot of one man to cut the first sod and then turn on the supply of the same reservoir. He was proud that this had fallen to him, and he was proud that they had such a beautifully constructed and fine reservoir. The Water Board in constructing that reservoir were making provision for prosterity, and he thought it right that they should do that. He thought they ought to congratulate Mr. Cartwright, their engineer on the scheme, and also congratuated the contractor on the way in which he had carried Mr. Cartwright's instructions. Mr. Foster the original contractor, was with them at the cutting of the first sod and presented him with a spade which he valued very much, and the first sod was cut about the spot on which they now stood. Mr. Foster died shortly after. Mr. Phinras Drake came to their rescue to complete the work as contractor. He did his work splendidly, but unfortunately he too died. His son had, however completed the work in quite as excellent a manner as his father had been doint it, and that reservoir would be a fine monument to hs work as long as he lived. Concluding Dr. Parkes said he hoped the Bury and Radcliffe members would taste some of that water that evening.

(We are grateful to John Simpson for kindly contributing these newspaper notes)

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Photos of Ogden Reservoir

Ogden 1959
Photo: Unknown

Took this photo one morning whilst bird migration counting on Stoney Rake above
Calf Hey and looks over towards Edenfield direction, the mist covering over
Ogden Reservoir. (B.Yorke)

This photo shows both Ogden Res and Holden Wood at sunrise on Fri 24th Oct 2008
(B.Yorke)

This again shows a sunrise over Ogden and Holden Wood on 19th October 2008
(B.Yorke)

Another sunrise from Stoney Rake (above Calf Hey) towards Misty Ogden
B.Yorke

A fresh frosty start looking down from Stoney Rake (above Calf Hey)
and down towards both Ogden Res and Holden Wood Res on 21st March 2008
It is yet another sunrise photo and just shows the sun relecting on the bottom of
the Holden Wood Reservoir.
(B.Yorke)

Fishing on Ogden 16th August 2003
(Photo: B.Yorke)

Trout fishing on Ogden
(by Bryan Yorke)

I used to love fishing on the Ogden! Those days (almost 50 years ago) there were only 60 members and you had to put your name down with the Secretary Frank Horrocks and wait until a vacancy occurred before you were invited to join the Haslingden and District Fly Fishing Club. Eventually the day arrived and I got my invitation, I think it was about £10 per year if I remember correct and you could fish for Brown Trout. There were no Rainbows then, it was only stocked with Brownies and the only other fish you ever were likely to see were minnows swarmed over near the feeder stream. The feeder stream which came into Ogden had been piped all the way around from the Musbury valley.
Ogden was a great place to spend an hour or two and rarely did I catch a fish, but it was well worth the membership for the privilege of the tranquillity of the surroundings, so peaceful with only the trickle of water or the splashing of ripples against the puddle-core stones. You may hear the birds singing and the fleeting glimpse and trilling of the Common Sandpipers. It was a special place and I bet it still is. I remember Harold Haworth, one of the founder members of the Club would come and have a fish quite near to the large diameter pipe just as you had climbed over the fence. He would see me on the other side quite a way back, and would shout over, who is it? His voice amplified as the echo on the Ogden and its valley is quite strong, I would shout back to put his mind at rest.Later I got to know Harold well and would regular go along to his house and he would tie flies for me to fish with, he was a master at fly-tying and would give me valuable lessons and tips. I still have some of my favourites for that water which Harold tied which included Greenwells glory, or Black Gnat or Alexander. I have a copy of Harold’s book which gives examples of some of his favourite flies. One thing for sure when you walked into Harold’s you could not help but notice the glass case on his wall which had a 5lb 9oz Brown Trout which he had caught back in 1922 on Ogden, it was such a beautifully marked fish (see photo below).
Many years later the Club took on many more members and started to stock the reservoir regular with Rainbow trout and at the beginning they also had another sort of trout, not sure but called something like Tiger trout, and they had markings like nothing I had ever seen before. I used to hear tales about odd anglers occasionally pulling out terrapins.The Club later sorted out parking, and built a fishing hut which every member got a key. They also put boats on (three I think) for fishing which were in a small compound over near the feeder stream.
I remember once reading a story in the local papers about a flying saucer that was supposedly seen discharging it’s flashing lights from under the waters of the Ogden coming from the bay area which runs close up to the roadside.

Early - Haslingden and District Fly Fishing Club notes
( Club notes thanks to Ian Belshaw - 10th June 2020)

Originally fishing on the Ogden was £5 per season. The original founder members, there were 30, all put in £15 as a loan which was repaid several years later. The first season was 1966, which makes this year my 54th continuous season as I am the last remaining member of the original 30, I was the youngest. The rent paid to the then Irwell Valley Water Board was £15 per year and it was on a 15 or 20 year lease. Our president was Coun Bert Bussey who lived at Calf Hey and was on the water company board. I hope this helps on how the fishing club was formed.

Holden Wood Reservoir
Building work completed in 1842
Measures: 21.5 acres
Height of Dam in ft = 40
Volume in mill.gals = 80.7
Height above sea level = 670ft

Top water level: 204.22 m (a.o.d)
Maximum depth 9.45m
Catchment area 337 acres

Holden Wood Reservoir was used for compensation to the River Ogden (tributary of the River Irwell), and also supplies rainwater to the Holden Vale Mill.

In 1841 William Turner of Higher Mill at Helmshore and John Bowker of Irwell Vale adopted the Holden site and built a private reservoir which although smaller than the 1832 scheme, still involved a lake almost half a mile long. It provided water for various mills and factories in the Helmshore and Ogden valleys. Holden Wood was built privately without parliamentary legislation, and has never been used for supplying drinking water. When no longer required for industrial use it became a balancing lake. (information extracted from the History of Haslingden Grane published on behalf of the West Pennine Moors Area Management Committee)

Early construction of Holden Wood Reservoir

Above is a newspaper cutting requesting Labour for the making of the embankments
(Cutting kindly shared by John Simpson)

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I remember when the Holden Vale Bleach Works was in existence, the water levels were forever fluctuating, yet within a year or two of the Company folding. The reservoir started to maintain constant levels and as such the Tufted Duck and the Great Crested Grebes began to breed on the reservoir.

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"Madge Hole" under Holden Wood.....

Holden Wood Reservoir 1924
Photo: Unknown

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Photos showing emptying Holden Wood
Reservoir (around 1989)