Old Railway Reservoir

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 16 Jan 2022

This is an unusual structure, now mostly hidden by grass. I forgot to measure it whilst there but from memory would guess its interior measurements are about thirty feet long by six feet wide. Not being a railway man I have no idea what purpose this little square structure at its South end once served, or why the main body of the structure is arched - the red bricks, just about visible in the picture, roughly form a semicircle. Halfway along its roof there is a hole; a couple of dogwalkers informed me that until fairly recently it was covered by a metal hatch (no doubt stolen for scrap). I didn't do that well with my measuring at all for this write-up really, as on top of forgetting to note down the structure's dimensions, due to my old walking pole often not being fit for purpose these days it couldn't be extended to check the internal height. The pole was necessary as this old reservoir still holds water. The water surface was about 18 inches from the hatch and at least two feet deep. To the right of the wire fence is a footpath which follows the route of an old mineral railway line, so engines must once have stopped here to take water onboard. The line is shown finishing at old quarries on old OS maps (the gaps between surveys back then were so long that former enterprises are often never shown as working). However, another very old dogwalker told me a year or two ago that Woodmuir Colliery, which was situated just South of here, made use of the old line in its own operations - I can't now remember exactly how, but I do remember that when I remarked that it all sounded extremely dangerous he confirmed that it was! Old OS maps label it as a covered reservoir.

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