The Mottram Tunnel (

Mottram in Longdendale Mottram in Longdendale is a village in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, west of Hadfield and east of Hyde. Within the historic county of Cheshire, it became part of Greater Manchester in 1974. Mottram in Longdendale was an ancient par ...

) is a tunnel carrying drinking water by gravity from Arnfield Reservoir,

Tintwistle Tintwistle ( ) is a village and civil parish in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England, which had a population of 1,400 at the 2011 census. The village is just north of Glossop at the lower end of Longdendale Valley. Tintwistle, like n ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, in the valley of the

River Etherow The River Etherow in northern England is a tributary of the River Goyt. Although now passing through South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Greater Manchester, it historically formed the ancient county boundary between Cheshire and Derbyshire. The up ...

, to Godley,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, in the valley of the River Tame. It was essential to the construction of the Longdendale Chain of reservoirs constructed by

John Frederick Bateman John Frederick La Trobe Bateman (30 May 1810 – 10 June 1889) was an English civil engineer whose work formed the basis of the modern United Kingdom water supply industry. For more than 50 years from 1835 he designed and constructed reser ...

. The tunnel was built between August 1848 and October 1850, and the

Godley Reservoir The Godley Reservoir is a reservoir in Godley, Greater Manchester, Godley, Hyde, Greater Manchester, Hyde, Greater Manchester. It was completed in 1851, as a critical part of the Longdendale Chain project that brings fresh water to Manchester. T ...

was finished in 1851 to receive and filter the water. The Manchester Corporation Waterworks Act 1847 ( 10 & 11 Vict. c. cciii) gave permission for the construction of the Woodhead,

Hollingworth Hollingworth is a village in the Tameside district, in Greater Manchester, England. It is about 11 miles (19 km) east of Manchester, on the Derbyshire border near Hadfield. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, and ...

and Arnfield reservoirs, and the construction of a masonry aqueduct to convey drinking water from the Arnfield and Hollingworth reservoirs to a service reservoir at Godley. The Manchester Corporation Waterworks Act 1848 allowed the construction of Torside and Rhodeswood reservoirs, and an aqueduct to convey the water to the Arnfield reservoir. The tunnel pierces the ridge that lies between the Etherow valley and the Tame valley. It is long, and has a gradient of . It is lined in stone, is in diameter and can carry 50 million

gallons The gallon is a unit of volume in British imperial units and United States customary units. The imperial gallon (imp gal) is defined as , and is or was used in the United Kingdom and its former colonies, including Ireland, Canada, Australia, ...

a day (230 Ml/d).

References

{{authority control Reservoirs of the Peak District Drinking water reservoirs in England Buildings and structures in Tameside Works by John Frederick Bateman Reservoirs in Greater Manchester

See also

References