HISTORIC SPOT DOOMED

Evening Star, Issue 18919, 18 April 1925, Page 9

HISTORIC SPOT DOOMED

WATER FOB MANCHESTER AiJCiEHT VILLAGE TO VANISH When the new scheme is ■completed by which Howes W ater, one of the prettiest lakes in the whole of the hake District, is enlarged and converted into a reservoii to serve the needs of the inhabitants of Manchester, more than seventy miles of pipes will have been laid, ten years will have elapsed, £10,000,000 will have been spent, and ft few farms, a famous inn, a school, and a seventeenth-century church will have vanished (says a correspondent o! the ‘London 'limes’). '1 he {arms, (ho quaint little church, the famous Hun Hull tun, and all the rest will he some 90ft beneath the water when the work is done. All of them tire to ho rebuilt on <i higher level, and, in the ease of the church, the actual stones will he taken away ami used again, hut in the. process .Mardale will have vanished. 'Jims where Mardaie stands to-day will provide drinking wafer for Manchester io-morrow. The scheme was recently approved by Manchester Waterworks (omnottee, audit will ho a long time, even after work has started, before, anything is done to Mardole nr to the lake itself. Pipes, aqueducts, and tunnels must he constructed first, but when, in about ten years, all the preliminary work is done, when tin; dams an; built, and when the word is dually given, the. lake will he. lengthened’by nearly two miles and its area increased from 7)50 to ! ,050 acres. '1 he hamlet at Mardale (Irecn will then vanish, and with it the present road along the side of the lake. The .same thing has been done at- Thirlmere, and there is little ugliness now as a result of it. The Mardak Church is one of the smallest in the country. Although it contains choir, pulpit, nave, gallery, and tower, it holds only just over thirty people. Until recently the* incumbent played the harmonium himself, and then proceeded to preach the sermon. He occasionally does it still, hut, when this is found to he too evh;ilisting, a, gramophone with appropriate records is used. 'J iic church is to he taken down stone hy stone, ami built higher up; the graves are to he opened and the bodies huned in the new churchyard ; hut there are .-onm line old yew trees in front of it that can never he removed, and these must be left under the water. In the churchyard many of the Holmes family, who were always known as "The kings of .Mardale,' lie buried, and (heir bodies are, to he disinterred. The Holmes tirst selt-Spd in the dale, in 1208, and the family remained there eon limn mMy until 1885. when ilia last direct, male descendant. died, Fix years ego the aunt of this man died at tho ago of ninety, and so now “The kings of Mardale” have, become at last, after 700 years, dissociated from the valley, which is soon to vanish. The Dun Hull is oho to he submerged, o|ul is to be rebuilt on Chape] Hill near by. This inn is hundreds of years old, and very famous locally. The old school at Measand, halfway along the lake, will also be. well under the level of the water when the scheme- is done, This was founded in 1717, and is also to ho re-e.recle.il higher up. Many pleasant meadows must also he sacrificed to give Manchester tho water it. desirts. The merging of Hawes Water and the Mardale Volley will provide 70,000,000 gallons of water, and the present- drainage area is to ho increased from about 8,000 acres to near 32,000 acres. 'The dales covered under the. new .scheme, which will provide this new drainage, area, are Swindale, Wet Sledda’e, Muddle, Force Heck, Cordale, Heltondale, and (fill Beck, and, hy the erection of small dams, the waters that flow into them will be diverted into Mardale. A dam is to be. built at (ho northern end of Hawes Water, which is the natural outlet (hy means of the river Lowther), and this will raise the water nearly 100 ft, so that, the height will then bo. 000 ft above sea level. The water is to bn drawn from the southern end by means of an aqueduct at the present water level. After this a tunnel four miles long will take it to the. head of Hong Sloddak) and thence the pipe line will run to Kendal, Kirkby Lonsdale, and eventually, after a journey of more than seventy-four miles, the water will reach .Manchester. The Bill for the work was brought forward in 1919, and the work must b« done by ,1934, ' • ,