Drive and Stroll, with Ron Freethy - this week, the story of Blackburn Well

IN a number of occasions in this column I have mentioned the famous wells of Lancashire.

There is Whalley, Wiswell and Clitheroe. But what about Blackburn's well?

If it had not been for the Industrial Revolution, Blackburn might well have made its mark as a watering hole. Let us, as they say, begin at the beginning.

Blackburn was initially supplied with copious springs and wells, all of which have now disappeared apart from references on maps.

There was once Folly Well and Brookhouse Well which were both referred to in records as early as 1154.

St Mary's Well is now swamped beneath the railway station and the Hallows Well was an important part of High Street.

By all accounts Hallows Well was famous for its medicinal properties and in the Middle Ages pilgrims travelled many a mile to drink the Blackburn spa waters.

By 1772 Blackburn town was expanding rapidly and there was an increasing demand for a public water supply especially with so many timber framed buildings which were always an obvious fire hazard.

The lords of the manor took action and decided to impound the waters of Snig Brook at the head of the then tree-lined Pemberton Clough. This was then on the outskirts of Blackburn but it has now been absorbed by Corporation Park. There had always been a small pond but this was enlarged and soon a second "reservoir" was built.

These two lakes were soon named by the wits of the town as "The Can" and the "Big Can."

Initially these "cans" were leased to William Towneley, who set about bringing water into Blackburn by means of wooden pipes. At various points stand pipes were built and water was sold at the rate of one penny per bucket!

For a while the Pemberton Clough intake satisfied the needs of the town and in 1845 the Blackburn Water Company was formed and in 1848 they paid £4,000 for the water supply. The population of the town, already around 40,000, was expanding to such an extent that new supplies of water had to be obtained.

A reservoir was also constructed at Pickup Bank and from this, water was delivered to a service reservoir at Guide which was on stream by October 9, 1847.

At this time 11 miles of piping was fed water down into Blackburn. Still the town was thirsty and a second reservoir was built at Daisy Green. Guide was extended and by 1858 Fishmoor had also been constructed. By 1875 the Blackburn Waterworks was indeed a thriving concern and the directors made their fortunes when the corporation decided to purchase the waterworks from them for the then enormous sum of £340,000.

Like all the cotton towns Blackburn needed more and more water and was becoming wealthy enough to pay for it.

A large area of Bowland was purchased as a gathering ground which was fed by two tributaries of the River Hodder. These are the rivers Whitendale and the Brennand. By 1884 a huge pipeline was built to deliver water to storage reservoirs around Blackburn. Parsonage reservoir was completed in 1915 and the chain of reservoirs then coped well with the town's demands.

The Bowland catchment and pipeline is still intact to the present time. Most of the reservoirs and the Bowland area have a network of footpaths around them.

The history of Blackburn's water supply must surely be one of the most interesting to be found in Lancashire.

Mr Norman Young showed me a fascinating book published in 1891 which tells the detailed story of Blackburn's water supply.

This is called Blackburn Waterworks by J G Shaw and copies are now obviously rare. It was published by the Blackburn Times. The line drawings show scenes which the walker will still recognise today.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.