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Mike Clarke, the Founder and President of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Society, gave a carefully illustrated presentation on a little known aspect of the canal, namely how the canal obtained a reasonably constant water supply, despite the terrain it runs through.
Mike emphasised the vital importance of an assured water source for any canal and especially one that climbed from sea-level at Liverpool, over the Pennines and then down eastwards to reach the basin in Leeds, some 280 feet below the summit.
The water-shed for the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a stretch running between Greenberfield and Barrowford, at a height of 487 feet above sea level and a constant ‘topping up’ system had to be available to keep the canal navigable and to feed the numerous locks on both flanks of the Pennines.
Mike explained that the each of the locks along this broad beam canal had a consumption rate of up to 80,000 gallons per fill and therefore a constant ‘fresh’ supply had to be readily available if regular traffic was to be maintained.
Not only was the high level water feed employed to compensate for losses along the canal, he explained, but until 1825 it was also the major source of drinking water for Skipton….. and, long afterwards, the essential supply of condensing water for numerous steam powered mills situated along the winding 127 mile route.
The feed from the complex of reservoirs near Foulridge was eventually complemented by the completion of the Winterburn Reservoir in 1891 and this was, Mike stated, the lynch pin that cemented the supply as it was, unlike its predecessors, a quick filling reservoir, suited to meet the changing demands of the canal.
To augment the supply from the earlier cluster of catchment reservoirs, the construction of additional reservoirs in the Bordley valley (at Bordley Hall and Bucker House) was planned, but, due to lack of finance, never built - however, Mike added, many streams were fed into the canal, as well as the water pumped from mine shafts, along the route.
Mike Clarke’s subject was of obvious interest to a wide range of people who bombarded him with a host of relevant questions - both during question-time and the following refreshment period - and the popularity of the subject resulted in one of the best attended meetings that the UWHG have hosted to date.
Phil Carroll
(UWHG Information Officer)
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