Mytholmroyd Historical Society

Mytholmroyd Historical Society held the third of it Winter Programme of lectures on Friday 8th November 2024. The speaker was Ben Brundell who gave a talk on Within’s Clough Reservoir. However, before I provide a synopsis of his talk I would like to thank David Ball  for his synopsis who stood in for me at the Januay’s meeting and Mrs Dianne Harwood who stood in for me at the October meeting. David’s synopsis was limited in scope sadly as he was as our technical person called upon to help with computor difficulties.

Ben’s illustrated talk was on Within’s Clough Reservoir  Cragg Vale and not as billed on the Rishworth Reservoirs because as speaking to local people in Mytholmroyd  he thought it would be of more interest to the audience.

Ben’s initial remark were as a response to his children asking where the water from the Reservoir and this prompted what became his very extensive researches.

Space precludes me providing a detailed account of all the points covered in his talk so I will only provide a short synopsis of some of the main points.

Withins Brook Within’s Clough Reservoir was built b etween 1891 &1898 approx to serve Morley and financed by the town which lies on a crest about 400 feet high about 6 miles to the south of Leeds. It was essentially a prosperous woollen town and its very dominant Town Hall was testimony to its prosperity. Access to water was an essential part of the Industrial Revolution to power the mills , transportation such as feeding canals and the growing needs of an expanding urban population.

To supply Morley with water  from Withins Clough which is about a 1000 ft required a 21 mile pipeline to be built to send  about 1.5 million gallons a day. The engineer of the scheme was Charles Gott with  recycled local millstone grit being  beautifully cut and used to formAfter WW2 the reservoir. Its construction was by navies whose predecessors had  earlier constructed the canals and later the railways to supplemented by the arrival of a loco-engine.

Some local farmsteads were to disappear under the water of the reservoir whilst many of those which survived the flooding became temporarily housing for the navies and one Pasture Farm was adapted to become the reservoir keepers house.

After WW2 some re-organisation of the water industry led to Morley becoming part of the Wakefield region in the late 1940’sand this led to some water being diverted across the moor and under Manshead to Baiting Dam whose overflow waters then go down the valley to the Rishworth Dams.

As time was limited questions were few and answered very briefly.

The vote of thanks was by Mr Glyn Lea who congratulated Ben on his very extensive and detailed researches which must have taken many hours of his time

Over 50 people attended including numerous visitors

The Society in Winter meets every second Friday of the month  at  7.30pm in St. Michaels Church Hall , Mytholmroyd ( adjacent to the Church ) from September to April inclusive. All are welcome.

The Annual subscription to become a member is £15.00 and for visitors a charge of £5.00. It is therefore, perhaps better to become a member.

The next monthly meeting is Friday  13^th December which is our

Christmas meeting and Mr Peter Thornton will show a short film. As usual the meeting will be preceded by a short AGM and concluded by refreshments

                                                                            Official Press Secretary

                                                                             Mike Darke