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Woodhead, Derbyshire

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30-702: Woodhead is a small and scattered settlement at the head of the Longdendale valley in Derbyshire , England. It lies on the trans-Pennine A628 road connecting Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire , 6 miles (10 km) north of Glossop , 19 miles (31 km) east of Manchester and 18 miles (29 km) west of Barnsley . It is close to the River Etherow and the Trans Pennine Trail . Although part of Derbyshire since 1974, like nearby Tintwistle and Crowden

60-470: A capacity of 190,000 m (42,000,000 imp gal). A tunnel was built at a depth of 200 feet (60 m) to carry the water from Longdendale into the valley of the River Tame . The Manchester Corporation Waterworks Act 1847 ( 10 & 11 Vict. c. cciii) (9 July 1847) was passed to allow the land to be acquired and construction to commence. The first railway line between Manchester and Sheffield

90-407: A centre of attention for UFO and ghost hunters. It has, however, been suggested that the lights may be " earth lights " produced by pressure on the underlying rocks. 53°29′44″N 1°47′42″W  /  53.49563°N 1.79496°W  / 53.49563; -1.79496 Arnfield Reservoir Arnfield Reservoir is a man-made lake in Longdendale in north Derbyshire , England. It

120-461: Is Highstones Farm. A Roman road may have run along the valley connecting it with Melandra Castle (Glossop). The lordship of Longdendale was an ancient feudal estate encompassing the medieval manors of Godley , Hattersley , Hollingworth , Matley , Mottram , Newton , Staley , Tintwistle and Werneth . The lordship was created by the Earl of Chester in the late twelfth century; William de Neville

150-590: Is added to remove manganese , and the water is filtered and chlorinated and fed into the distribution network. Also in the 1960s, part of the Longdendale aqueduct was replaced with 1,200 mm (47 in) diameter pipes. In 1990, the Hollingworth Reservoir (now part of Swallows Wood nature reserve) was decommissioned and levelled and waters from the Ogden Brook fed into Arnfield. In 2004, two sections of

180-528: The Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire . The western part of the valley, including the villages of Broadbottom , Mottram in Longdendale and Hollingworth is part of Tameside in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. The whole of Longdendale forms the easternmost extension of the lands within the historic boundaries of Cheshire . The River Etherow , a tributary of

210-551: The Peak District of England, north of Glossop and southwest of Holmfirth . The name means "long wooded valley" and the valley is mostly in the counties of Derbyshire and Greater Manchester . The eastern part of the valley is in the non-metropolitan county of Derbyshire and includes the village of Tintwistle and, further east, part of the Peak District National Park, with the last half-mile or so falling into

240-553: The River Mersey , rises south of Holmfirth and then flows through a chain of six reservoirs known as the Longdendale Chain : Woodhead Reservoir , Torside Reservoir , Rhodeswood Reservoir , Valehouse Reservoir , Bottoms Reservoir and Arnfield Reservoir . There was a seventh reservoir at Hollingworth , but it was abandoned in 1990 and now forms part of Swallows Wood Nature Reserve . Hollingworth and Mottram were part of

270-755: The 1,000–1,500-foot (300–460 m) level) on both sides of the valley. It is about 17 miles (27 km) long and is 'not recommended in doubtful weather'. The detailed route, clockwise from Crowden Youth Hostel, is given in Peak District Walking Guide No.2 , published by the Peak Park Planning Board. Torside Reservoir is home to Glossop Sailing Club. The M67 motorway starts at the M60 motorway in Manchester and heads east where it currently terminates at Mottram in Longdendale . There were plans in

300-725: The 1960s to extend it through the National Park to the M1 motorway and Sheffield but it was never built. From here the A628 runs through the valley to join the A616 . As of January 2008 there are advanced plans to improve the A628 route by bypassing Mottram and Tintwistle to the north with a spur to the A57 road . Known as the 'A57/A628 Mottram-in-Longdendale, Hollingworth & Tintwistle Bypass' or Longdendale Bypass ,

330-425: The 1960s, water was treated by passing it through straining frames at Godley. In the 1960s, a more sophisticated system of treatment was employed. Treatment plants were built at Arnfield and Godley. At Arnfield, lime, ferric sulphate and polyelectrolyte are added to the water in mixing chambers. This flocculating agent binds together the impurities, which sink and are removed in sedimentation tanks. At Godley, lime

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360-407: The Longdendale urban district in the administrative county of Cheshire from 1936. In 1974 the district was absorbed by Tameside Metropolitan Borough . There is a Roman fortlet at Highstones on the south-facing slope overlooking Torside Reservoir. It is an oval-shaped area, with an obvious ditch, and about 82 yards (75 m) across. A footpath runs immediately to the north of it, and to the west

390-511: The National Park underground. The railway line ceased to be economical, and in 1970 the passenger service ceased, followed in 1981 by the goods service. The passenger service was adversely affected by the requirement to keep the Hope Valley line open, whilst the freight service was affected by the falloff in Trans-Pennine coal traffic. The track was lifted in 1986. There have been plans to re-open

420-399: The bottom of the shaft survive. The hamlet gives its name to Woodhead Reservoir , the highest in the Longdendale Chain of reservoirs. On 6 July 2014, Stage 2 of the 2014 Tour de France , from York to Sheffield, passed through the hamlet. This Derbyshire location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Longdendale Longdendale is a valley in

450-400: The chosen route of the 2014 Tour de France , during the second stage between York and Sheffield. The Pennine Way crosses Longdendale, descending from Bleaklow to the south and ascending Black Hill to the north. The youth hostel at Crowden is a traditional stop after the first day's walk from Edale . The circular walk known as 'The Longdendale Edges' takes in the high ground (at about

480-500: The control of the crown in 1357, and remained under crown control until 1374. The lordship was given to Matilda Lovell and the Lovells controlled Longdendale until 1465 when control again reverted to the crown. The lordship was granted to Sir William Stanley in 1489, however the lordship once again reverted to the crown when Stanley was executed in 1495 as a supporter of Perkin Warbeck . In 1554

510-578: The hamlet was in the historic county of Cheshire . Woodhead is the location of the western portals of the Woodhead Tunnels , three former railway tunnels on the electrified Woodhead Line between Manchester and Sheffield . There was formerly a railway station and signal box at Woodhead. The Woodhead railway line closed in 1981; the trackbed between Woodhead and Hadfield now forms the Longdendale Trail . The platforms are still intact, although

540-659: The lordship was granted to Richard Wilbraham. Tollemache family inherited lordship of Longdendale from the Wilbrahams in the 1690s. It was part of the Hundred of Macclesfield. An estate survey, or 'Extent' of the lordship for 1360 was published by the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire in July 2005. A packhorse route called a saltway was maintained from the Middle Ages onwards for

570-493: The older saltway route. The Longdendale catchment exceeds 30 square miles (78 km ) and has an annual rainfall of 1,330 millimetres (52.5 in). The civil engineer John Frederick Bateman recognised the potential and conceived a plan to deliver this water to Manchester and Salford, while still maintaining the flow in the River Etherow that was needed to power the mills of Tintwistle and Glossop . The six reservoirs have

600-572: The public inquiry has been adjourned four times and is currently adjourned 'indefinitely'. Traditionally, Longdendale was in the County palatine of Chester. Up until local government reforms in 1974, Longdendale Urban District, along with Tintwistle Rural District , formed part of the administrative county of Cheshire; the Municipal Borough of Glossop was in Derbyshire; and Penistone Rural District

630-593: The purpose of allowing the export of salt from the Cheshire wiches of Nantwich , Northwich and Middlewich across the Pennines . The passing trade brought prosperity to settlements along the route. The importance of the salt trade along such saltways is shown by surviving placenames; for example Salter's Brook ( SK137999 ) is where the saltway forked, with one route leading to Wakefield and another to Barnsley . The stone Lady Shaw Bridge still exists at this point, as do

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660-505: The railway at various times since it was closed, but none have gained planning approval. After the rail line was closed, the trackbed was taken up and the Longdendale Trail constructed along its route. It is now part of the Trans-Pennine Trail ( Sustrans National Cycle Route 62 ) which, in its turn, is part of the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) European walking route E8 from Liverpool to Istanbul. Holme Moss and Woodhead Pass are on

690-480: The ruins of an old inn. The bridge is just wide enough for a packhorse, though it is suspected that the bridge may have originally been wider and was deliberately narrowed when the Saltersbrook turnpike was built, to prevent vehicles bypassing the toll barrier. The turnpike road from Manchester to Saltersbrook connected to further turnpikes for Yorkshire destinations and was built in the mid-18th century, based on

720-473: The track has been removed. Among the remains in the graveyard of St James Church, a small 18th-century chapel, are the unmarked graves of navvies who died during the construction of the tunnels. Adjoining the church is Bleak House, a Grade-II-listed 19th-century dwelling. Two miles to the east, the Lady Cross marks the highest point of the former packhorse road from Longdendale to Rotherham . Only its base and

750-565: The water is extracted to pass through the Mottram Tunnel to Godley . The Manchester Corporation Waterworks Act 1847 ( 10 & 11 Vict. c. cciii) gave permission for the construction of the Woodhead , Arnfield and Hollingworth Reservoirs and an aqueduct to convey waters 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

780-502: The water to the Arnfield reservoir. The earthen embankment is 17 metres (56 ft) high and the five sections total 953 m (3,127 ft) in length. It was constructed of local clay; a masonry overflow weir protects the reservoir from overtopping. Beneath it lay the trapezoidal Longdendale aqueduct that followed the contour to take water from the reservoirs to the Godley reservoir. Until

810-402: Was constructed between 1839 and 1845 on the south side of the reservoir chain by 1,500 navvies of whom many died and most suffered illness. The three-mile-long double Woodhead Tunnel was, for a time, the longest tunnel in the country. It was replaced by a single, larger tunnel in 1954. The first tunnel was subsequently used by CEGB to reroute the main high-voltage link up the valley and through

840-464: Was constructed in 1854 as part of the Longdendale chain to supply water from the River Etherow to the urban areas of Greater Manchester . Unlike the other reservoirs in the chain, Arnfield and Hollingworth Reservoir are not in the Etherow valley but lie in the valley of tributary brooks to the north and above (Arnfield lies around 1 mile from Bottoms Reservoir in the Longdendale Chain ). From Arnfield

870-626: Was in the West Riding of Yorkshire . Today, the valley is split between the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, and the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester. The valley and the surrounding area has a reputation for strange phenomena, including unexplained lights and allegedly supernatural apparitions and has become

900-542: Was the first lord of Longdendale, as appointed by the Earl of Chester. Buckton Castle , near Carrbrook , was probably built by William de Neville in the late twelfth century and was also probably the centre of lordship of Longdendale as it is the only castle within the lordship. One of the privileges of the lordship was to carry out trial by combat. The lordship of Longdendale was passed from de Neville to his son in law, Thomas de Burgh, in 1211 on his death. The lordship reverted to

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