High Bullough Reservoir is the oldest of all the

reservoir 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 contro ...

s in the

Rivington Rivington is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is a rural area consisting primarily of agricultural grazing land, ...

chain, having been authorised by an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

obtained in 1846 and completed in 1850. It was built for Chorley Waterworks by the engineer

John Frederick Bateman John Frederick La Trobe Bateman (30 May 1810 – 10 June 1889) was an English civil engineer whose work formed the basis of the modern United Kingdom water supply industry. For more than 50 years from 1835 he designed and constructed reser ...

, who had estimated the cost of the project while working for Edwin Chadwick's Towns Improvement Company, and had then acted as Engineer for the project. The outlet consisted of a pipe running through the dam, and supported by two masonry piers where it ran through the central clay puddle. The outlet valve was at the downstream end of the dam, and although this configuration is no longer thought to be good practice, there have been no serious issues with the reservoir throughout its operational life. The earth dam had a maximum height of , was long and impounded of water. Popular with walkers, it forms part of the

Anglezarke Anglezarke is a sparsely populated civil parish in the Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England. It is an agricultural area used for sheep farming, also site of reservoirs that were built to supply water to Liverpool. The area has a large expanse ...

trail, although it is also accessible from Manor House. It was originally named Chorley Reservoir. There are a number of websites that state that High Bullough Reservoir is no longer used to supply drinking water, but the reservoir was still contained in a list of reservoirs in the Rivington Chain when

United Utilities United Utilities Group plc (UU), the United Kingdom's largest listed water company, was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West Engla ...

issued an application for a drought permit to reduce compensation flows to the River Yarrow in mid-2018. A huge staircase, made from

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

, was created between the reservoir and nearby Manor House. Known as Jacob's Ladder, the remains can be seen on the east side of the water.

Bibliography

References

{{authority control Tourist attractions in Chorley Drinking water reservoirs in England Reservoirs in Lancashire