Baitings Reservoir is a large water supply reservoir operated by

Yorkshire Water Yorkshire Water is a water supply and treatment utility company servicing West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire, in England. The company has its ...

close to

Ripponden Ripponden is a village and civil parish on the River Ryburn near Halifax in West Yorkshire, England. Historically it was part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Its population was 6,412 at the time of the 2001 Census, and 7,421 in 2011. Rippond ...

in the

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Commo ...

, England. It lies in the valley of the

River Ryburn The River Ryburn is a river in West Yorkshire, England. It flows through the villages of Rishworth, Ripponden and Triangle before flowing into the River Calder at Sowerby Bridge. Course The river becomes known as Ryburn at the confluence of r ...

and is the higher of two reservoirs built to supply

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

with water and was completed in 1956. The lower reservoir is

Ryburn Reservoir Ryburn Reservoir is a supply reservoir operated by Yorkshire Water close to Ripponden in the Yorkshire Pennines, England. It lies in the valley of the River Ryburn and is the lower of two reservoirs built in the valley to supply Wakefield with ...

History

Wakefield Corporation Waterworks started impounding the valley of the River Ryburn in the 1930s, with Ryburn Reservoir being completed in 1933. Construction on Baitings took place 20 years later with completion in 1956. The reservoir takes the name of the hamlet that was flooded under the new dam . The hamlet of Baitings, whose name derives from the

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

of ''Beit'' (pasture) and ''Eng'' (meadow), was on an old road linking Yorkshire and Lancashire. During spells of very hot weather and drought conditions, the old

packhorse bridge A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low Parapet#Bridge ...

is revealed. The dam head is a curved structure that is long and over high. The reservoir covers and has a catchment of , and when it is full, it holds over of water. The dam took eight years to complete at a cost of £1.4 million, and is located at above sea level. A tunnel connects reservoirs in valleys to the north with Baitings to allow for the transfer of water. Manshead Tunnel is long and was opened in 1962. In 1989, the body of a man was found at the bottom of the reservoir during a period of dry weather, when the water was shallower than normal. He had been murdered and his body was weighted down with a pick axe. The crime was featured on ''

Crimewatch ''Crimewatch'' (formerly ''Crimewatch UK'') is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was or ...

'' and remains unsolved.

References

External links

Images of the reservoir and surrounding area
{{authority control Reservoirs in West Yorkshire Protected areas of West Yorkshire Ripponden