Scar House Reservoir is the second of the three

reservoirs A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...

Upper Nidderdale Nidderdale, historically also known as Netherdale, is one of the Yorkshire Dales (although outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park) in North Yorkshire, England. It is the upper valley of the River Nidd, which flows south underground and then ...

, England, the others being

Angram Reservoir Angram Reservoir is the first of three reservoirs on the River Nidd in Upper Nidderdale, North Yorkshire, England, the others being Scar House Reservoir and finally the compensation reservoir Gouthwaite Reservoir. It is located at OS map refe ...

and

Gouthwaite Reservoir Gouthwaite Reservoir is a reservoir in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire, England. It is one of many in the area, others include Roundhill Reservoir and Angram Reservoir. Gouthwaite's sole purpose is a compensation reservoir for the River Nidd, i.e. ...

. Between them they attract around 150,000 visitors a year. Angram and Scar House were built to supply water to the

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

area of

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. Water from here is transferred to Chellow Heights via the

Nidd Aqueduct The Nidd Aqueduct is an aqueduct or man-made watercourse in North Yorkshire, England. It feeds water from Angram and Scar House reservoirs in upper Nidderdale, North Yorkshire to Bradford in West Yorkshire. The aqueduct supplies of wate ...

using only gravity and no pumping. The dam contains over one million tonnes of masonry, it rises to above the river and is almost long. It was completed in 1936. The dam height is The reservoir is fed almost exclusively from

Angram reservoir Angram Reservoir is the first of three reservoirs on the River Nidd in Upper Nidderdale, North Yorkshire, England, the others being Scar House Reservoir and finally the compensation reservoir Gouthwaite Reservoir. It is located at OS map refe ...

, which in turn is fed predominantly from the flanks of

Great Whernside Great Whernside is a fell in the Yorkshire Dales, England, not to be confused with Whernside, some to the west. Its summit is the highest point of the eastern flank of Wharfedale above Kettlewell. Great Whernside forms the watershed between ...

History

Scar House was the last reservoir to be built in the Nidd Valley. It superseded an earlier reservoir, Hayden Carr, constructed in the early 1890s. Work started at Hayden Carr in 1894 by Morrison and Mason of Edinburgh. When Angram was nearing completion, Bradford Corporation decided to construct a larger dam at Scar House, which would incorporate and submerge the Hayden Carr reservoir. Scar House Reservoir was started in 1921 with direct labour under the control of Lewis Mitchell, Bradford's city engineer, and took fifteen years to complete. Stone for the dam was quarried from the quarry on Carle Fell to the North and North West of the dam. An

inclined railway Incline, inclined, inclining, or inclination may refer to: *Grade (slope), the tilt, steepness, or angle from horizontal of a topographic feature (hillside, meadow, etc.) or constructed element (road, railway, field, etc.) *Slope, the tilt, steepn ...

was constructed to move stone from the quarry to the dam site. New Laithe ruins in Scar House Reservoir Nidderdale - geograph

Scar House was once home to more than 1,250 villagers who lived and worked building the Nidderdale dam in the 1920s. Evidence of the village can be seen to the left of the reservoir approach road in the form of concrete bases and also just below the car park where one of the original buildings is now used by a local farm. After construction of the reservoir was complete, the old village hall was moved to Darley, where it is still a village hall. The

Nidd Valley Light Railway Nidd Valley Light Railway was a light railway in upper Nidderdale in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was owned by Bradford Corporation Waterworks Department and the corporation also operated its public passenger services. Power & Tract ...

was constructed to enable the reservoirs at Scar House and Angram to be completed. The railway opened in 1907 and closed in 1937. In 1932, the former church building at Scar House was moved to St Martin's Church in Heaton, Bradford.

Facilities

* Car park * Toilets * 3 picnic areas * Wheelchair access * Seasonal café (Saturday and Sunday only)

Activities

* Fishing – controlled by th
Nidderdale Angling Club
* Grouse shooting – controlled by Yorkshire Water and the Middlesmoor Estate. * Walking * Horse Riding * Mountain biking *

Caving Caving – also known as spelunking in the United States and Canada and potholing in the United Kingdom and Ireland – is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology i ...

The geographical half way point of the

Nidderdale Way The Nidderdale Way is a circular long distance footpath in Nidderdale in North Yorkshire, England. The trail can be started and completed anywhere on the route, but the usual starting points are Ripley, linked by the frequent route 36 bus to ...

is the dam at Scar House Reservoir.

References

External links

*
Nidderdale AONB website

Yorkshire Water
– Scar House Reservoir {{authority control Nidderdale Reservoirs in North Yorkshire Scar House