Pennine Hills Watershed - Summit, UK - Watershed Markers and Monuments on Waymarking.com

"The Pennines, also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of mountains and hills in England separating North West England from Yorkshire and North East England. Often described as the "backbone of England", the Pennine Hills form a more-or-less continuous range stretching northwards from the Peak District in the northern Midlands, through the South Pennines, Yorkshire Dales and North Pennines up to the Tyne Gap, which separates the range from the Cheviot Hills. South of the Aire Gap is a western spur into east Lancashire, comprising the Rossendale Fells, West Pennine Moors and the Bowland Fells in North Lancashire. The Howgill Fells in Cumbria are sometimes considered to be a Pennine spur to the west of the range. The Pennines are an important water catchment area with numerous reservoirs in the head streams of the river valleys...
...For much of their length the Pennines form the main watershed in northern England, dividing east and west. The rivers Eden, Ribble, Dane and tributaries of the Mersey (including the Irwell, Tame and Goyt) flow westwards towards the Irish Sea. On the eastern side of the watershed, the rivers Tyne, Tees, Wear, Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe, Aire, Calder and Don rise in the region and flow eastwards to the North Sea. The River Trent, however, rises on the western side of the Pennines before flowing around the southern end of the range and up the eastern side; together with its tributaries (principally the Dove and Derwent) it thus drains both east and west sides of the southern end to the North Sea." extracted from Wikipedia

The folowing details have been extracted from page 7 of this web document describing the regeneration project.

"The canal story is fascinating. The Rochdale Canal was conceived in 1776 when a group of 48 eminent men from Rochdale raised £237 and commissioned James Brindley to conduct a survey of possible routes between Sowerby Bridge and Manchester. The Canal eventually opened in 1804 after ten years of construction to create the first navigable waterway across the Pennines between Yorkshire and Lancashire. Known as the "Everest" of canals, its dramatic construction over a watershed at 600ft using 92 locks was the catalyst for the industrial revolution in the South Pennines. The Canal became a living artery enabling the movement of power, wealth and influence throughout the Upper Calder Valley.

The Watershed

Summit Pound – halfway along Summit Pound there is a watershed sculpture that represents the point where the canal reaches its highest point in its climb over the South Pennines. The poem on the sculpture was created by Andrew McMillan and is called Liquid Equinox. Andrew was one of the South Pennines Poets in Residence in 2011 and describes his inspiration for the poem in the following way; 'I was struck by the idea of equilibrium, or being on the exact centre of things; the notion that any water which falls at that point could run down in either direction – towards the Irish Sea or towards the North Sea. Such precise balance, it seems to me, is rare. I remembered that old myth, the one about being able to balance an egg on its end at the exact moment of the equinox. What if we could do the same with water? What if there was more than one possible direction?'"

The text of the poem is as follows

Watershed
the cusp of something	the fold in the moss-roof
of the hills	shouldering rain either side of this:
heather receding to the brow-line of the canal	underbelly of the land exposed
thin instruments jackdaws call their feet	kneading the moor's split crust
the wall on its knees to drink	the moving silver trolley of the water moored
a sky which runs in each direction	from the upturned spoon of earth
the day balanced on its end	liquid equinox
	Andrew McMillan 2011

The Rochdale Canal with its locks is of course unique compared to the watershed rivers as it flows down both sides of the the watershed divide. To do this it relies not only on the canal locks, but also reservoirs to maintain the water levels.

Type: Artwork

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