Lower Laithe Reservoir

Lower Laithe Reservoir is a man-made upland reservoir that lies 1.2 miles (2 km) west of Haworth, West Yorkshire, England.[1] The reservoir was initially approved under the Keighley Waterworks and Improvement Act of 1869[2] but work did not begin on its construction until 1911 and even then was delayed because of the First World War. The reservoir was officially opened in August 1925 in front of a crowd of over 8,000 people. Its final tally on cost was £500,000.[3] The reservoir lies in the Sladen Valley and was often referred to as Sladen Valley Reservoir.[4]

Lower Laithe Reservoir
Lower Laithe Reservoir looking eastwards towards the Worth Valley
Location	Stanbury, Haworth, West Yorkshire
Coordinates	53°49′40.8″N 1°58′46.6″W
Type	Reservoir
Primary inflows	Sladen Beck
Primary outflows	Sladen beck
Catchment area	1,200 acres (500 ha)
Basin countries	England
Managing agency	Yorkshire Water
Surface area	29 acres (11.6 ha)
Max. depth	60 feet (18 m)
Water volume	45,000,000 cubic feet (1,275,000 m^3)
Shore length^1	1.3 miles (2.1 km)
Surface elevation	735 feet (224 m)
^1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

The reservoir, alongside other nearby man-made bodies of water, was proposed to afford a better water supply to the town of Keighley and its environs.[5]

Lower Laithe Reservoir. The octagonal valve tower has 5 storeys of drawing mechanisms beneath it.[6] This is looking northwards towards Stanbury across the dam head.

The reservoir dams Sladen Beck watercourse and takes water directly from the surrounding moorland including the stream that flows over the Bronte Waterfall. The catchment area is 1,200 acres (500 ha)[7] and the Sladen Valley and Beck are part of the larger catchment of the River Worth and ultimately the River Aire.[8]

The reservoir has an embankment as the dam head which is straight and extends to a length of 1,010 feet (310 m), a height of 84.5 feet (25.8 m) and which also supports a road between Oxenhope and Stanbury village. The road (since known as Waterhead Lane) used to cut across Sladen valley taking a north west route from Intake Farm and going through the small hamlet of Smith Bank.[9] The hamlet and its mill (which featured in Halliwell Sutcliffe's novel A Man of the Moors[10]) were flooded when the reservoir was completed with the road being diverted northwards onto the dam head.[11] The dam head is concrete with a clay puddle core. There is a spillway at the northern end which drops down to the adjoining waterworks facility.[12]

Stone for the reservoir was sourced from the nearby Dimples Quarry (now abandoned and in the Penistone Hill Country Park) which was 0.31 miles (0.5 km) south east of the reservoir. A narrow gauge railway was used to transfer the quarried product to the dam head[13] which was operated by a rope worked incline.[14] Clay for the central core was worked from a quarry 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Stanbury and necessitated laying a steam worked railway to bring the clay to the dam head.[15]

The spillway and embankment were modernized and improved as part of a £60 million programme of investment by Yorkshire Water.[16] Lower Laithe specifically was found to not have been up to standards as laid down by an act of parliament in 1978. The water classification is listed as moderate in terms of ecology and good in terms of chemical quality as of 2015.[7] Whilst the surrounding moorland is noted for its bird life, few birds live on the reservoir itself although some like the shelduck are frequent visitors.[17]

Sladen Beck joins the River Worth 0.62 miles (1 km) further east near to the hamlet of Lumb Foot.[1]

The grassed east facing slope of the dam head was used as a backdrop for a banner promoting the Tour de Yorkshire. The banner was unveiled in January 2014 as part of a wider 'Yorkshire Festival' by the owners of the reservoir and one of the sponsors of the festival, Yorkshire Water.[18]

References

1. Leeds & Bradford (Map) (C1 ed.). 1:50,000. Landranger. Ordnance Survey. 2002. ISBN 0-319-22704-9.
2. Dewhirst, Ian (25 October 2012). "Haunting image of a lost valley". Keighley News. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
3. Dewhirst, Ian (27 January 2011). "Inauguration of reservoir". Keighley News. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
4. Borough of Keighley Annual Report 1938 at the Internet Archive
5. Rickards, George K (1870). "cxxix". The statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland [1807-1868/69]. London: HMSO. p. 669. OCLC 4814919.
6. "Haworth Moor and Stanbury" (PDF). South Pennine Trails. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 May 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
7. "Lower Laithe Reservoir". Catchment data explorer. Environment Agency. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
8. "River Factfiles – The Aire Catchment" (PDF). Environment Data. Environment Agency. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
9. "Waterworks" (PDF). The London Gazette. 1. 21 November 1911. p. 8621. Retrieved 17 October 2016.CS1 maint: location (link)
10. "Landmark was submerged". Keighley News. 4 October 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
11. "Stanbury Conservation Area Assessment" (PDF). Bradford Council. Bradford Council. October 2005. p. 11. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
12. Evans, Natalie. "Lower Laithe Reservoir" (PDF). Water Projects Online. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 August 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
13. "Penistone Hill Country Park, Haworth" (PDF). Bradford Council. Bradford Council. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
14. Wood 2011, p. 122.
15. Wood 2011, p. 121.
16. "£60m will be pumped into improvements to reservoirs". Keighley News. 29 May 2010. Archived from the original on 14 February 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
17. "2014-2015". Bradford Birding. Archived from the original on 14 February 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
18. Rahman, Miran (13 January 2014). "Bradford's Yorkshire Water unveils support for Tour de France arts festival at Stanbury reservoir". Telegraph and Argus. Retrieved 17 October 2016.

Bibliography

• Wood, Steven (2011). Haworth, Oxenhope & Stanbury from old photographs; volume 2 trade and industry. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-0669-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links