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| "During the middle of the 18th Century a feverish spate of canal building was taking place and spreading all over England" |
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It was intended that by linking the Rochdale Canal with the Yorkshire one that eventually it would be possible to link Hull and the North Sea with Manchester and Liverpool or as said at the time 'to join the German Ocean to the Irish Sea'. The Rochdale Canal was begun in 1794 and took some ten years to complete, in three stages: 1. Sowerby Bridge to Todmorden - finished in August 1798 2. Todmorden to Rochdale - December 1798 3. Rochdale to Manchester 1802. |
| The Rochdale Section, sponsored by local industrialists such as Newall and Beswick of Littleborough, and Fielden of Todmorden, when finished contained, 92 locks from Sowerby Bridge to Manchester, 6 bridges, 8 aqueducts and a tunnel 70 yards long. The Rochdale Section cost £471,950 in all, raised by shareholders of the Company who had great hopes of financial gain. For obvious reasons, including cost and labour, the routes of the canals often followed the rivers and the objective of the construction was to keep a good water level in the canal and to avoid interference from natural streams of different origins and water values. Many new and extraordinary contrivances were used to assist the passage of the canals-embankments as at Todmorden Road Littleborough, tunnels as at Stanedge and aqueducts such as the famous one at Barton near Manchester, which carried the Bridgewater Canal at a height of 38 feet above the River Irwell. |
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| To keep the flow of water in our local Rochdale Canal. Which at Summit is 600 feet above sea level, falling 438 feet to Manchester and 319 feet to Sowerby Bridge - and because of objections to the streams flowing into the Rivers Irk and Irwell being drained to feed the proposed canal - it was decided, and I quote: "To build great reservoirs in the hilly country near different parts of it's course to supply water against all the waste at the locks and also waste by leakage without having to borrow from adjacent streams". The final completion of the Rochdale Canal was made when in 1804 an Act of Parliament approved all the above and also covered parts and plans previously riot accounted for in the initial stages of planning. |
| To supply the necessary storage of water for the new canal two large lodges or reservoirs were planned - one at Hollingworth covering some 120 acres together with about 40 acres of low lying marshy ground and another, well up on the Blackstone Edge Moors, called Whiteholme of about 90 acres. In fact it was found necessary to build five reservoirs in this area - as recorded by John Sutcliffe in “A Treatise on Canals and Reservoirs” 1816. No doubt before the engineers selected Hollingworth as the most suitable site for the major reservoir they looked around the other valleys in the area. |  |
| In Rochdale Library there survives a sketch detail of an earlier proposal of 1792 to build the reservoir in the Ealees Valley which would have covered all the land in the natural hollow", over the new car park down to near Lane Foot Farm where presumably there would have been a high dam or embankment. The making of the Lodge, which later became known as Hollingworth Lake, meant the flooding of farmland and the covering of a few small buildings. By the way, despite popular legend, there is no church at the bottom of the lake and no ghostly bells ringing. The water to fill the lake came of course by streams from the moors, where catchment water channels were made, and then flowed in by Rakewood as can be seen when crossing the low ground at what is called 'the back of the Lake'. There was no large natural hollow to form a reservoir and so high embankments had to be made on three sides, the main one, 'Hollingworth Bank', being to cut off the Ealees Valley - where the road runs from near the Fisherman's Inn towards Rakewood. The other embankments are 'Fens Bank' which runs from the Fisherman’s towards the Beach Hotel and 'Shaw Moss Bank’ which is on the south side, towards the Navy League. |
 The Historic Mermaid Inn (now demolished) |
A full and detailed account of the construction of Hollingworth Lake, the other reservoirs and the Canal would be an interesting and formidable task. There is much for the reader who wishes to look further into this early history in the local libraries. Sutcliffe, for example. Describes how water from the Lake was lifted by steam power and fed into a channel, which ran for four miles to supply water to the higher level at Summit Littleborough. This channel can still be seen today, winding its way up to Syke, back to below Whittaker, then to Owlet Hall and eventually up to Summit. The pumping house stood at the back of Bear Hill, Lower Hollingworth. Beckett informs us that the steam powered pumping engine raised the water about 45 feet from the Lake level and into the drain (channel); the engine falling into disuse, being demolished around 1910. |
| The Lodge was also used to supply water to the new mills (Fothergill and Harvey), which were rapidly developing, both alongside the canal and up the new low level road from Littleborough to Todmorden, popularly called 'Gale Road'. The next great step occurred with the coming of the Manchester and Leeds Railway (later to become part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire) in 1839. Today a plaque on the wall of Littleborough Station records the coming of the Railway and the building of the famous tunnel at Summit which was at that time, 1841, the longest railway tunnel in Europe (see picture of entrance above). In Littleborough and roundabout more houses were built as people came to live in the district - some to work at the reservoirs and on the railway, others to work on new buildings. Others came from country districts to work in the new cotton mills and factories. The growth of this district went forward, as did Rochdale and Todmorden, creating a new populace. The Hollingworth Lodge was by this time known as The Lake and became popular as a place to visit during leisure hours - and as workers now finished their week at noon on Saturdays, a walk around the Lake became something of a habit with the locals. It was not long before the possibilities for organised enjoyment and pleasure on a bigger scale began to be realised. The Rochdale Canal Co leased the use of the Lake, apart from water rights, to two Littleborough men Henry Newall of Harehill, who owned Harehill Woollen Mills, and his engineer, Sladen. Newall, who also owned the new Gasworks, and Sladen, who was soon to take on the landlordship of the Mermaid Inn on the approach to Hollingworth Fold, went to work on pleasure developments on and around the Lake. Boating and novelty amusements were the main attractions. The Lake. which is 2 miles 372 yards round and has an average depth of 30 feet with a suggested depth of 80 feet at the centre . |
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| Today, Hollingworth Lake is also a residential area. Following the gradual building of Private and Council houses over the last 50 years or so; there has been a great spate of new house building in very recent years on land behind Lake Bank right down towards Smithybridge, and also on the land between the Lake and Milnrow Road. Modern public transport, the M62 trans Pennine Motorway and car ownership means that many people can now work in Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, or further afield and enjoy the benefits of living on the edge of fine moors and countryside. The Lake area now has an excellent variety of activities, Sailing Club; Rowing Club; Angling Society; Sub-aqua Group; Caravan site; Rowing Boats: Wind Surfing: Natural history Group and spaces for people to do nothing at all. An attempt some years ago to put speedboats on the Lake was soon stopped. Just away fray Rakewood Village is another very recent development the Rochdalians Sports Area with clubhouse rugby and nearly every sport for the youth backed by a Ladies section who organise social fun clubhouses. All these activities, with the natural beautiful surroundings make this lake, constructed 200 Years ago to supply water for the new canal, an admirable centre for the Country Park. |
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| See the Gallery link for more pictures |