Lower Laithe Reservoir is a man-made upland reservoir that lies west of

Haworth Haworth () is a village in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines, south-west of Keighley, west of Bradford and east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages includ ...

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 ...

, England. The reservoir was initially approved under the Keighley Waterworks and Improvement Act of 1869 but work did not begin on its construction until 1911 and even then was delayed because of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. 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. The reservoir lies in the Sladen Valley and was often referred to as ''Sladen Valley Reservoir''. The reservoir, alongside other nearby man-made bodies of water, was proposed to afford a better water supply to the town of

Keighley Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford. Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west of Bi ...

and its environs. Lower Laithe Reservoir - geograph

The reservoir dams Sladen Beck watercourse and takes water directly from the surrounding

moorland Moorland or moor is a type of habitat found in upland areas in temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands and montane grasslands and shrublands biomes, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils. Moorland, nowadays, generally ...

including the stream that flows over the Bronte Waterfall. The catchment area is and the Sladen Valley and Beck are part of the larger catchment of the

River Worth A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

and ultimately the

River Aire The River Aire is a major river in Yorkshire, England, in length. The ''Handbook for Leeds and Airedale'' (1890) notes that the distance from Malham to Howden is direct, but the river's meanderings extend that to . Between Malham Tarn and Ai ...

. The reservoir has an embankment as the dam head which is straight and extends to a length of , a height of and which also supports a road between

Oxenhope Oxenhope is a village and civil parish near Keighley in the metropolitan borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The population was 2,476 at the time of the 2001 census which had increased to 2,626 at the 2011 Census. Historically par ...

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. The hamlet and its mill (which featured in Halliwell Sutcliffe's novel ''A Man of the Moors'') were flooded when the reservoir was completed with the road being diverted northwards onto the dam head. 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. Stone for the reservoir was sourced from the nearby Dimples Quarry (now abandoned and in the

Penistone Hill Country Park Penistone Hill Country Park is an open space of moorland that is located to west of Haworth and north-west of Oxenhope in West Yorkshire, England. The park's highest point is detailed with a trig point which is above sea level. Since 1994, ...

) which was south east of the reservoir. A narrow gauge railway was used to transfer the quarried product to the dam head which was operated by a rope worked incline. Clay for the central core was worked from a quarry west of Stanbury and necessitated laying a steam worked railway to bring the clay to the dam head. The spillway and embankment were modernized and improved as part of a £60 million programme of investment by Yorkshire Water. 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. 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. Sladen Beck joins the River Worth further east near to the hamlet of Lumb Foot. The grassed east facing slope of the dam head was used as a backdrop for a banner promoting the

Tour de Yorkshire The Tour de Yorkshire is a road cycling race in the historic county of Yorkshire, England which first took place in May 2015. It is promoted by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) and is rated as a 2.HC event as part of the UCI Europe Tour. ...

. 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.

References

Bibliography

External links

{{authority control Reservoirs in West Yorkshire Geography of the City of Bradford