HUDDERSFIELD NARROW CANAL
RESERVOIRS
On the Huddersfield Narrow Canal the ascent to Marsden of
436 ft (133m) meant a need for 42 locks; the descent of 334
ft (102m) necessitated the building of another 32, totalling
74 in all. Every time a lock was used, a lockful of water
was lost from the summit pound which had to be replaced. Therefore
a series of reservoirs were built to maintain adequate supplies
of water. The reservoirs and their capacities in gallons are
given below:
March Haigh 71,000,000
Tunnel End 22,650,000
Redbrook 67,900,000
Swellands 54,350,000
Black Moss (Diggle Moss) 18,650,000
Little Black Moss 2,200,000
Diggle 17,950,000
Brun Clough 8,600,000
Slaithwaite 68, 200, 000
Sparth 8,150,000
All the reservoirs were contained by conventional earth dams
with clay cores and most leaked due to poor construction.
In 1817 John Rooth said in a letter that the state of the
reservoirs was so bad that "the whole of the water that
could have been collected from the summit would not have been
sufficient to support the then little trade upon the canal
and .... there was not one reservoir out of five that would
retain any water ...."
On the 17th August 1799 heavy rains caused the embankment
at Tunnel End reservoir to collapse, allowing the waters to
surge through, wrecking the aqueduct and bringing havoc to
Marsden and beyond. The damage done was so great that another
Act of Parliament (1800) had to be drawn up to pay for repairs
and allow the canal to be finished.
After Telford had visited the area in 1806 he wrote: "It
is now too late to express a regret, that such large sums
of money have been expended on such narrow dingles of small
capacity, as these were liable to be filled with rocks and
silt washed down by the mountain streams," He recommended
the building of another reservoir east of the one currently
being constructed at Black Moss, which would receive its water
from the latter. This reservoir came to be known as Swellands,
but it is more famous for the 'Black Flood' of the 29th November
1810. On this occasion the dam walls burst open, releasing
the waters into the Colne valley and causing terrible damage
to homes and factories.
At the other extreme the canal was notorious for stoppages
due to a lack of water. The large number of locks on the canal
placed heavy demands on the water supply and in times of drought
the canal was liable to dry up.
As the canal became disused, an agreement was reached with
the water authority to operate the larger of the reservoirs
under their direction, to help control water supplies in the
Colne Valley. In return, they agreed to provide up to 280
million gallon of water per annum for the canal. This is let
in, when necessary, through a valve house located above the
top lock (Lock 42) at Marsden. Only two of the old reservoirs
in the Colne Valley are now used to supply the Canal ‑Sparth
near Marsden, and Slaithwaite.
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