Description and History of Site:-

A small impounding reservoir, of about 12 Ha area and approximately 18m deep at the embankment. It currently holds, at a maximum, about 850 million litres of raw water gathered from a catchment of about 2.4 square kilometres.Until 1867, the supply of drinking water to the inhabitants of Keighley was provided by 'The Company of Proprietors of Keighley Waterworks' under the terms of the Keighley Waterworks Act of 1816. By 1853, this company were supplying about 3,000 houses in the town (probably less than half the population) with an average of six gallons of water per day. The supply was rather intermittent, being connected for 8-10 hours per day in the winter and for only 2-4 hours in summer.

In 1867, the 'Keighley Local Board of Health' bought out the operations of the Company of Proprietors for £17,000 and set about providing an improved and more constant supply. They obtained a new Act of Parliament in 1869 authorising the construction of a number of new reservoirs and other associated works.

Watersheddles reservoir was amongst the first of the new works, commenced in August 1871 and completed in 1877. It was built by forming an earth embankment, 80m in length and a maximum height of about 25m, across the River Worth. The embankment was provided with the usual puddled clay core wall, and the water drawn off by a tower, with valves at three levels, within the inner wall of the embankment. The water was originally conveyed to a service reservoir at Blackhill via a cast iron main of about 11 km length.

As was usual at the time, the impounding of the waters of the River Worth was permitted only on condition that a compensation reservoir (Ponden Reservoir, WYK02601) was provided further (about 3 km) downstream to maintain a supply of water to those mills which relied on a reliable water supply.

The spillway at Watersheddles has recently (2015) been rebuilt and relined using reinforced concrete.

Further Reading and References:-

http://www.ukwaterprojectsonline.com/case_studies/2015/Yorkshire_Watersheddles_2015.pdf

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Key Words :- potable water impounding reservoir

Viewing the Site :- Public Access Land

Address :- Two Shaws Road, Keighley, Lancashire, BD22 0JL
Grid Ref :- SD 96917 38044
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.838637 , Long -2.048333
Local Authority :- Pendle Borough Council
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Operational site, in use for original purpose
Site Dates :- 1877 -
Contributor :- Nick Nelson - 6 April 2020

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Nick Nelson