Blackleach and North Walkden
Glen Atkinson, Philip Hagerty and Annie Surtees

Neil Richardson. Manchester. 2001. A4. 84 illustrations inc. 7 maps

In 1997, after ten years of campaigning by the Blackleach Voluntary Group with the support of the local authority, the Blackleach Country Park was created. The area had been derelict for years, but various bodies had plans for development on a commercial basis, and the group was forced to fight a hard battle in order to achieve its aim. The park is adjacent to the Blackleach reservoir, or the half of the original that remains, and within a short distance is a close knit group of five further reservoirs of varied size. The book tells the story of the construction of the reservoirs, the development of the site as an industrial area and, finally, the transformation of a section of it into the park.

From earliest times much of the area, part of Walkden and some four miles to the north west of Manchester, consisting mainly of mossland and open moor, was accessible to all. Where the land was suitable for farming however this formed the main source of livelihood. To some extent this was the position until after the end of the second world war and we are given details of some of the farms and the people running them. Readers who are local to the area will perhaps be aware of the multiplicity of books (five of them are available from the bookshop), pamphlets and articles concerning this area. These are centred, in the main, on the activities of the Duke of Bridgewater whose family, the Ellesmeres, had been the owners of the estate from Elizabethan times. While the authors have found it impossible to ignore this aspect they cast a wider net to tell of the many other industries that started, blossomed and eventually died in the locality.

Originally the reservoirs were created to provide the power to drive what were known as bucket machines. These were used for lifting coal from the mines to the surface by means of the weight of a water filled bucket connected by ropes and pulleys to the tub containing the coal. Any reader who has ridden on one of the few remaining cliff railways in this country, notably that linking Lynton with Lynmouth in North Devon, will have been transported by means of the identical principle. Over the years the water from the reservoirs was put to other uses culminating in the supply of water, at a cost of over £3000, for the kitchen gardens and greenhouses, together with the landscaping, at Worsley New Hall, built for the Earl of Ellesmere in 1847. Domestic weaving had taken place for many years in most of the estate cottages and continued to be encouraged, after the beginning of its decline, by the Ellesmere family in order to employ women no longer working In the pits. Early in the 1860s however the development of power operated machinery could not be ignored and the first mill was built. This was to be the forerunner of many more, a total of ten according to a map reproduced in the book. Following a chapter on the mining activities, Including details of the underground canals extending to something like fifty miles on four levels, the authors continue with a description of the growth of the chemical Industry In the area. This commenced in a small way with a few factories to meet the needs of the local textile processes, chiefly fulling and bleaching at the time, but grew into an Industry supplying a diverse range of products.

The construction of industrial premises and the erection of housing created a need for bricks and the local terrain contained deposits of clay suitable to this purpose. Their manufacture, at the earlier stage, formed what might be described as a cottage industry (certain sections of the underground tunnels were lined with hand made bricks). Eventually the demand required an output beyond such capability resulting in the development of an organised industry. The remainder of the book describes the way in which the township grew in later years and the growth of leisure activities, closing with an exposition of the activities concerned with the formation of the country park. (Walter Bee)