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Relevant Information
Last
modified:
August 29, 2006
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A Bill had been promoted in parliament in 1898 for a new water scheme in
Geltsdale, which would collect water from the river Gelt and its springs and
bring it to a new reservoir in the adjacent valley at Castle Carrock.
Here the
rock was suitable and the reservoir could be watertight. The water would be
stored and filtered and provide a reliable and safe supply for a growing
Carlisle, which had previously relied on springs.
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View over the Solway
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The
site of the new reservoir was on Tottergill land. Six fields were lost and new
land a short distance away was purchased to make up the farm’s acreage. The
whole area was transformed as an army of navvies (many were Irish), moved into a
temporary camp around the site while the construction work continued. A huge
shed was built to house cement and a gunpowder store where the powder for
blasting was kept separately. A railway was built and a pulley system with a
donkey engine ran up to the quarry on the hillside, It is still possible to see
the cut in the quarry where the pulley was housed.
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For
those looking down from the farm the view’ was transformed. as a swathe of
green fields became a vast excavation filled with construction work,
village
life also underwent an upheaval as the local population increased fivefold and
twelve pubs catered for them John Edward Shipman. who was headmaster of the
school and organist at the church, took a piano up to the navvies huts so that
they could have a Sunday service, He also helped those who were illiterate, with
letters that came from home. Once the reservoir was completed, the navvies all
moved on to build another one somewhere else.
When the
reservoir opened in 1906 it was a masterpiece of engineering - ornate yet
functional. It was operated by a staff of seven men, today it is fully automatic
with just one visiting manager. Its value now is not only as a water supply but
also as a protected environment for wildlife and plants and an important scenic
resource for local leisure and tourism.
Many
trees have now grown up around the waterside and changed the view from
Tottergill again. They are a valuable habitat for the red squirrel which is
still found locally.
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