Haweswater Reservoir
The Haweswater Reservoir is a reservoir in northern English Lake District. The lake extends in a slightly curved shape from south to north-east in the valley of Mardale and has a capacity of 28 million m³.
Description
Originally there were two natural lakes, High Water and Low Water. The water level was raised to 29 meters through the construction of the dam and there was a six kilometers long and 600 meters wide lake.
The controversial construction of the dam started in 1929 after the British Parliament had passed a law that the water supply should ensure, in North West England and Greater Manchester.
There were extensive protests against this project because in the valley of Mardale Mardale Green and villages Measand should be abandoned and flooded. In addition, there were the Valley's most extremely beautiful areas Westmorlands, so that the plan found little support among the people.
Before the valley flooded in 1935 after completion of the work, all the buildings of the villages Measand and Mardale Green were demolished, including the several hundred year old Dun Bull Hotel in Mardale Green. The stones of the village church was used with the construction of the dam and the graves of the cemetery were moved to the about ten kilometers further east place Shap. When the water level drops in the summer, you can see the remains of the village today.
The final of the valley dam is 470 meters long and 27.5 meters high and is supported by 44 pillars. It was considered at the time of creation as special technical performance because she was the first buttress dam in the world hollow construction
The client, the Manchester Corporation, made a new road on the eastern shore of the reservoir to build up to its southern end, where the village of Mardale Green was before the flood. There are today only a parking lot that is used as a starting point for tours of the surrounding mountains Harter Fell, Branstree and High Street. Halfway the Haweswater Hotel was built as a replacement for the old Dun Bull Hotel.
Today, the reservoir of United Utilities plc, a Public Limited Company is one ( Aktiengesellschaft) for electricity and water supply, based in Warrington.
The valleys around the Haweswater reservoir are the only region in England, nesting in the golden eagle. In the secluded valley Riggindale the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ( RSPB) maintains a monitoring station. The first pair of eagles nested in 1969 and so far 16 chicks were reared from different pairs. Since 2004, the female eagle is gone, but it is hoped that the remaining male eagle finds a mate to raise new offspring.
The author Alfred Wainwright lamented the construction of the dam and the flooding of the valley in his Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells: "If we can accept as absolutely Necessary the conversion of Haweswater [to a reservoir ], then it must be conceded did Manchester have done the job as unobtrusively as possible. Mardale is a quiet classy valley. But it works with search clumsy hands! Gone for ever are the quiet wooded bays and shingly shores did nature had fashioned so sweetly in the Haweswater of old; how aggressively ugly is the tidemark of the new Haweswater "( " When we consider the conversion of Haweswater [ in a reservoir ] than is absolutely necessary, we must recognize that it is Manchester as unobtrusive as possible succeeded. Mardale is still an excellent valley. But man is clumsy with his hands for ever are the silent wooded bays and pebble beaches, which had designed nature so lovely in the old Mardale; !, and how aggressively ugly is the shoreline of the new Haweswater ' )
Born in Cumbria author Sarah Hall portrays in her novel Haweswater (ISBN 0-0608-1725-9 ) the construction of the dam and the impact on the people in Mardale from the perspective of an affected farm family. The book won the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2003 for a first film.