Yarrow Reservoir

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Yarrow Reservoir - named after its tributary, the River Yarrow, is the newest reservoir in the whole Rivington chain in Lancashire, and has a storage capacity second only to Anglezarke Reservoir.

In 2002, several tons of fish were transported to this reservoir when the Upper Rivington reservoir was completely drained for essential maintenance work.^[1]

The construction of the reservoir was described in Wm. Fergusson Irvine's book "A Short History Of The Township Of Rivington" :

A suitable site for the embankment having been selected, a trench was excavated on the centre line of the intended work and carried down to the solid rock right across the valley. This was filled with clay deposited in laters of 9 inches, and carefully puddled so as to produce a homogenous watertight material. This clay wall, having reached the natural surgace of the ground, was continued through the embankment, which was also build in thin laters thoroughly rammed and consolidated on both sides of the clay centre. Before commencing the erection of the embankment all peat and unsound material were stripped from the site. The inner or water slopes of the embankment have been built to an angle of 3 to 1, and outer slopes to an angle of 2 to 1. The impermeability of the dam depends upon the wall of puddled clay in the heart of the dam tied into the solid rock at the bottom and sides of the valley. The clay wall has been carried up to a batter on each side of 1 inch to every foot vertical, the thickness at the top being 6 feet. The inner slopes of the bank are protected by 15-inch pitching, consisting of the millstone grit of the neighbourhood, laid on a bed of broken stone. The outer slopes have been soiled and grassed over.

On the banks of the reservoir is a 'face in the wall' - an effigy carved into a large stone on top of the dry stone wall that is said to depict an inspector who worked for the Liverpool Corporation and made worker's lives a misery.

[edit] Notes and References

The Rivington reservoir chain This box: view • talk • edit

Upper Roddlesworth | Lower Roddlesworth | Abbey Village | Rake Brook | The Goit | Anglezarke | High Bullough | Upper Rivington | Yarrow | Lower Rivington | Rivington Water Treatment Works