Deer Hill Reservoir

Details

  • location: 2 miles northwest of Meltham in the former district of Lingards
  • status: still exists
  • category: reservoir

History

The first reservoir to be built on the site covered an area of around 3½ acres and was constructed by local mill owners on land owned by Lord Dartmouth.[1] Usually known as Lingards Reservoir and sometimes as Deer Hill Reservoir, this is the reservoir marked on the first O.S map which was surveyed circa 1849. The map appears to show the reservoir draining into Bradley Brook which flows down through Holt Head towards Slaithwaite.

By the 1860s, the old reservoir had fallen out of use.[2]

In his 1905 book, Slaithwaite Notes: Past and Present, John Sugden wrote:[3]

There was a little dam on the site of the present Deer Hill reservoir, and a spring of fresh water, which the lads and lasses used to drink in summer, along with that richer draught which bound them one in after life, remembering the canty days they had with one another while musing on these scenes, the dear old lanes, the quiet footpaths, the river banks, the old friends, and the pleasant reminiscences of the past.

Under the terms of Huddersfield Water Act of 1869, the first sod of the new Deer Hill Reservoir was cut in August 1870, and this incorporated the existing reservoir. The civil engineers on the project were Thomas Hawksley[4] of London and George Crowther (senior partner of Messrs. G & G.H. Crowther) of Huddersfield.[5]

The foundation stones of the shaft and culvert were laid on 21 September 1871 by the first Mayor of Huddersfield, C.H. Jones.

The navvies working on at both Deer Hill and Blackmoorfoot went on strike in February 1872 over working hours.[6]

At the end of 1873, the expenses to date on the construction were reported by the Huddersfield Chronicle:

£ s d
Purchase of land and buildings 367 7 3
Workmen's wages 17,438 14 10
Timber 164 13 3
Locomotive, rails, sleepers, cranes, carts, waggons, pumps, chains, &c. 1866 13 2
Erection of temporary buildings 89 2 10
Excavation materials 916 17 3
Tools 13 6 0
Keep of horses 441 10 0
Carriage of plant and materials 433 14 10
Construction of Deerhill New Road 128 4 3
Bricks, lime, and cement 289 4 9
Iron and steel 85 14 0
Miscellaneous expenses 29 14 5
Total 22,264 16 10

Work was completed by 1875 and the reservoir was filled to capacity in September of that year with 158,000,000 gallons of water.

In 1882, solicitor Joseph Milnes brought an successful action against Huddersfield Corporation at the Yorkshire Summer Assizes held at Leeds. Evidence was heard that the acidic nature of the water in both Deer Hill and Blackmoorfoot reservoirs was corroding the lead water pipes and leading to symptoms of lead poisoning. Substantial damages of £2,000 were award.[7]

Heavy rain in mid-October 1892 caused Deer Hill Reservoir to overflow, which in turn caused damage to the stream bed of Bradley Brook.[8]

The quality of the water was improved by the construction in 1899 of three adjoining filter beds which covered an area of ¾ of an acre to the northeast of the reservoir. These were reportedly able to filter 1,250,000 gallons a day.[9]

Gallery

    Loading... ::::::omeka tag Deer Hill Reservoir:::geograph 171658:::geograph 4682697:::geograph 4682117:::geograph 77791:::geograph 4682715:::geograph 1562827:::geograph 4683175:::instagram mAQbM4DXSS:::instagram pjVLkxDXcU:::instagram pjVKNcjXcM:::instagram pjVLAHjXcR:::instagram mARrBEDXT0:::instagram mARXc0DXTV:::instagram mAQiaNjXSY:::

Location

Notes and References

  1. History of the Huddersfield Water Supplies (1939) by T.W. Woodhead, chapter 5.
  2. "Huddersfield Waterworks Bill" in Leeds Mercury (24/Apr/1869).
  3. See chapter XXXVII.
  4. Wikipedia: Thomas Hawksley.
  5. "Death of Mr. Thomas Hawksley" in Huddersfield Chronicle (30/Sep/1893).
  6. "Huddersfield" in Leeds Mercury (07/Feb/1872).
  7. "Yorkshire Summer Assizes" in York Herald (04/Aug/1882). See also "The Water We Drink" in the journal Homeopathic World (May 1883).
  8. "Huddersfield County Borough Council" in Huddersfield Chronicle (22/Dec/1892).
  9. "Our Waterworks" in Huddersfield Chronicle (30/Jun/1899).