Sparth Reservoir - Marsden, UK - Water Dams on Waymarking.com

This canal is one of three that crosses the Pennine Hills and built to provide transport between Huddersfield in Yorkshire and Ashton-Under-Lyne in Lancashire.

As the name suggest it is a narrow canal that although was cheaper to build had less carrying capacity compared to the other two broad canals.

Work started on it in 1794 and partly due to the need to construct the longest canal tunnel in the United Kingdom it was completed 17 years later in 1811.
The canal is only 20 miles long and due to the nature of the terrain has 74 locks even though the summit tunnel reduced the required number of locks. The canal climbs 436 feet from Huddersfield and descends 334 feet to Ashton-Under-Lyne.

Due to the number of locks on the canal many local mill owners were opposed to the building of the canal because they feared that in the summer it would be necessary to take water out of the nearby streams to feed the canal.

"Outram, the canal engineer, initially proposed feeder reservoirs 'to contain 14,900 locks-full of water to supply one hundred locks per day for four months altogether', claiming this was more than enough for the largest trade that could be expected, and that with this 'capacious system' there was no need to tap the rivers in the dry season and thus deprive the mills of vital supplies. In spite of this claim the cautious weavers still insisted on increasing total capacity to 20,000 locks full.

All reservoirs were contained by earth dams with clay cores, although the design and construction methods are unknown. Most leaked for several years after completion and this can no doubt be attributed to ignorance of the engineering principles involved, lack of suitable plant for consolidation and, perhaps, also to the absence of skilled supervision. The state of the reservoirs on the summit level in 1800 was said by Rooth to be so bad 'that there was not one reservoir out of five that would retain any water' and 'there was a fairly well-grounded apprehension of great destruction to the property of the country below the Slaithwaite dam'". link

Because of the poor quality of the initial dams, and indeed some failed and caused floods, a further dam was constructed here at Sparth near Marsden in 1807.

It feeds the eastern side of the canal and in times of need helps to provide water for the bottom 32 locks of the eastern side of the canal.

Waterway where the dam is located: Next to The Huddersfield Narrow Canal Main use of the Water Dam: Improve Navigation Material used in the structure: embankment Date built: 01/01/1807 Fishing Allowed: no Motor Sports Allowed: no Height of Dam: Not listed

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