thousandmilesblog | Walk Post 060 - Watergrove History (Reply)

Date of Walk: 12/09/10
Walk organized by: Saddleworth Pedestrians
Start time: 10:30
Start location: Watergrove Reservoir, Rochdale
Walk length: 4.42 miles
Weather conditions: Showers early on, sunny later

Watergrove's history in a wall

Details:

Watergrove Reservoir
Watergrove Reservoir, near Wardle, is a Site of Biological Importance visited by several rare bird species. The reservoir was built in the 1930s to supply Rochdale and the surrounding area. The area had suffered a fairly prolonged drought in that decade, during which water had needed to be bought in from Oldham. The ruins of Watergrove village were submerged in the construction, but before this was done a number of date stones, drinking troughs and window mullions were rescued and built into a wall alongside the reservoir. Around the reservoir some ruined properties that were part of the old village are still visible. A sailing club is located here. There is also an area of woodland, created in the last few decades, with memorial trees. Higher Slack Brook Farm once stood nearby, but little is visible of it now. An old pack horse route to Ramsden runs close to the Hades Trail, which also passes a small stone structure at the top of the hill. Coal mining once took place on the hillside, though the coal seam running through the hill was quite narrow. The hill offers good views of the surrounding moorland and rough grazing land, and nearby Hollingworth Lake is visible from one side.

The Walk
The route mostly followed the Hades Trail. Starting from the car park we walked up to and alongside the reservoir, passing the date stones set into the wall. We saw a small group of people with remote controlled miniature boats at the edge of the water. We briefly stopped at the far end of the reservoir before going back past the memorial wood and up onto the hill. We went along a path partway up the hill, from which we could see Hollingworth Lake, and then joined another path that went diagonally up the hill to the stone structure. We stopped here for lunch. We then continued along the top of the hill towards the old pack horse route, then turned back down towards the reservoir along a sunken path that ran alongside a stream. We could see spoil heaps from the coal mining, which followed the line of the old coal seam. We continued down the hill, passing some old ruins which we stopped to look at before returning to the path around the reservoir and walking back to the car park.

Early on it was quite cold and rainy, especially when we were going up the hill. The rain eased off when we were at the top, but it was very windy and so quite chilly during the lunch stop especially. As we came down the hill the sun came out and it felt much warmer. The ruins were perfectly showed off by the sun, and were fascinating to explore. A nice, relatively short walk, if in a place that proved quite difficult to get to due to lots of road closures and a very bouncy cobbled lane leading up to the car park. Possibly not a place to visit in mid winter, but worth a look.