Welcome to our 160th Issue Low Water, which now create the Haweswater reservoir. There is an interesting article, “How Victorian water engineers put Manchester on the tap”, which gives a good summary of the engineering behind Manchester’s water. The aqueduct carries 570 million litres a day.
It is that time again when I’m sitting at my computer, in what is almost the smallest room in the house, with possibly the best views. A constant distraction, but one I have now lived with for over ten years as I watch the sun disappear on another beautiful day. It was around this time in that year that I made the decision to work on what would be the first Cumbrian Local publication, Issue No 1.
The 56-mile underground Haweswater Aqueduct to Manchester is another feat of engineering, drawing water from the reservoir which opened in 1935. But, did you know, with six tunnels of 2.6 metre diameter, 31 miles of the aqueduct are big enough to walk / drive down. The remaining 32 miles are made up of four buried pipes between 1.2 metre and 1.4 metre diameter. The weight of the water over the 550 metre drop from Haweswater Reservoir sucks the water over a number of uphill sections—the whole system essentially acts as a massive siphon (ref https://hidden-manchester.org.uk/waterways/ haweswater-aqueduct). The people that work on the tunnel are called ‘Aaquanauts’. I end this slight digression in my opening introduction with a question. With this natural system, how much natural energy, potentially hydro energy could be taken from what I think is about 125,382,471.53 gallons?
We were experiencing a warm summer back then in 2010, particularly May and June. The water sprinklers were on, but it would seem for too long. A hosepipe ban was put in place on July 9th 2010 after the driest December to June for more than 70 years. In the local and national news, the ruins and remains of the village referred to as Mardale, emerged as the water level dropped. I digress for a moment, to share a little research. Once a thriving village in the Mardale Valley prior to the area becoming a reservoir through an Act of Parliament, before the construction of the dam started in 1929, there were actually two villages - Measand and Mardale Green and the water was two small natural lakes called High Water and
Back to 2010, and it was during that time I was out at meetings that included the owners, editors and chief executives involved in local papers, and key personnel in local radio, presenting the idea of Eden FM Community Radio. I attended my first
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