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Featherbed Moss
Featherbed Moss is a flat-topped hill, 541 metres (1,775 ft) high, in the Peak District in the county of Derbyshire in England. It is sometimes mistakenly thought to be a joint county top.
1. Description
Featherbed Moss is a treeless, domed summit covered by moist peaty moorland vegetation. It rises south of Chew Reservoir. To the south the land falls increasingly steeply into the Torside Reservoir and, to the east into the ravine of the Crowden Great Brook through which the Pennine Way runs from north to south.
1. References
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659 m
Chew Reservoir
Chew Reservoir is a reservoir at the head of the Chew Valley in the Peak District National Park in Greater Manchester, England.
The reservoir scheme in the Greenfield and Chew Valleys by the Ashton Stalybridge and Dukinfield Waterworks Joint Committee commenced in 1870. Chew Reservoir was built to hold 200 million gallons of water. Intended to be a compensation reservoir, it also had a filtration plant so that it could be used for drinking water in times of drought.
Completed in 1912, the reservoir was the highest constructed in England, at 1,600 feet (488 m) above sea level, until the Cow Green Reservoir in the North Pennines in Teesside was completed in 1971. The reservoir is connected to the larger Dovestone Reservoir further down the Chew Valley by the Chew Brook.
1.2 km
Black Chew Head
Black Chew Head in Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham is the highest point or county top of Greater Manchester in northern England. It stands on moorland on the edge of the Peak District at a height of 542 m (1,778 ft) above sea level, close to the border with the High Peak district of Derbyshire.
Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire (along with the rest of Saddleworth), it became a county top in 1974 on the creation of Greater Manchester following the Local Government Act 1972.
1.3 km
Chew Valley, Greater Manchester
Chew Valley in Saddleworth, Greater Manchester, England, follows the course of Chew Brook on the western slopes of Black Chew Head to where it joins the River Tame at Greenfield, east of Manchester. Part of the higher fringes of the valley towards the peak of Black Chew Head lie across the boundary in Derbyshire. The eastern part of the valley including the reservoirs of Dovestone and Chew are within the north western extremity of the Peak District National Park.
Chew Reservoir was completed in 1912. At 1,600 feet (490 m) above sea level, it was the highest reservoir constructed in England. A tram-road was laid in Chew Valley to transport 42,318 cubic yards (32,354 m3) of clay to make an inner core for its dam to make it watertight. The tram and railway are gone but the route forms the Oldham Way long-distance footpath; reconstructed bridge hosts a sign with information, pictures, and a map.
In 1949, a BEA Douglas DC3 crashed into the hill at Wimberry Rocks killing 24 passengers and crew and leaving 8 survivors.
2.9 km
Rhodeswood Reservoir
Rhodeswood Reservoir is a man-made lake in Longdendale in north Derbyshire, England. It was constructed by John Frederick Bateman between 1849 and June 1855 as part of the Longdendale Chain of reservoirs to supply water from the River Etherow to the urban areas of Greater Manchester. It is third in the chain, and it is from here that the water is extracted to pass through the Mottram Tunnel to Godley for Manchester.
The Manchester Corporation Waterworks Act 1847 (10 & 11 Vict. c. cciii) gave permission for the construction of the Woodhead and Arnfield reservoirs; 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 where it would pass through the Mottram Tunnel to Godley.
During construction, landslips were a problem. On the night of 6 February 1852, 30 acres (120,000 m2) of land beneath the contractors' village of New Yarmouth moved 6 inches (150 mm) obliquely to the watercourse. Bateman consulted the engineers Robert Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Pipes were sunk to draw off the water from the underlying shale.
The purest water in a reservoir lies between 1.5 and 3 metres (4 ft 11 in and 9 ft 10 in) beneath the water's surface, so water was extracted by means of syphons. The water now flows directly to the Arnfield Treatment Works in Tintwistle and to the Mottram Tunnel.
A statutory report, prepared under the Reservoir Safety Act 1975 and dated 12 June, stated that all five reservoirs could be overtopped during a Probable Maximum Flood. Woodhead as the fountainhead would have the most extensive improvements, and with these completed there was no danger at Rhodeswood of overtopping; however, there was weakness in the north spillway. To reduce the pressure, the roadway was consolidated to protect the north spillway from erosion, the embankment was raised by 40 millimetres (1.6 in) above the road, the wave wall was heightened by 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) and the south spillway tunnel was remodelled. The work took place between 1994 and 1995.