Bosley Reservoir
| Bosley Reservoir | |
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| Coordinates | 53°11′29″N 2°7′5″W / 53.19139°N 2.11806°WCoordinates: 53°11′29″N 2°7′5″W / 53.19139°N 2.11806°W |
| Type | Reservoir |
| Basin countries | United Kingdom |
Bosley Reservoir is a large reservoir created to feed the Macclesfield Canal system, specifically the twelve Bosley locks. It is fed from the surrounding hills, including Bosley Cloud which rises to 1,125 feet (343 m).
The Macclesfield Canal was surveyed by the canal engineer Thomas Telford in 1825, and was authorised by an Act of Parliament in April 1826. Although Telford was not involved in its construction, which was handled by the resident engineer William Crosley, it was typical of Telford's designs, with cuttings and embankments to create a line which was as straight and level as possible. This resulted in a canal with only two levels, connected together by a magnificently engineered flight of twelve locks at Bosley. The canal opened on 9 November 1831.
The canal runs along a ridge of hills to the west of the Pennines, and is at a relatively high level. The southern section from the Trent and Mersey Canal to the foot of Bosley locks is at 400 feet (122 m) above ordnance datum (AOD) and the locks raise the level by 118 feet (36 m) so that the summit level is at 518 feet (158 m) AOD. This required a reservoir to be built at a high level, where few of the streams were sufficiently large to maintain its level. The obvious source of water was the River Dane, which the canal crosses at the foot of the Bosley flight, but that already supplied the Caldon Canal and so could not be used. Instead, a network of almost 5 miles (8.0 km) of feeders were built on the hills, which extracted water from streams at thirteen locations. One fed the much smaller Turks Head or Sutton reservoir, two fed into the canal directly, and the rest supplied Bosley Reservoir. At each extraction point, a gauging plate was fitted to ensure that the stream below it still received some water, and the size of the cast iron gauging plates were specified in the original Act of Parliament.
The canal company advertised for tenders to build the reservoirs in August 1827, with a closing date of 3 September. The contract included the making of a large stone dam at the southern end of the reservoir site, and the various feeders which would collect the water and deliver it to the canal. When finished the reservoir covered 86 acres (35 ha) and held 410 million imperial gallons (1,900 Ml). This was supplemented by the 92 million imperial gallons (420 Ml) held in Sutton Reservoir after that was completed in 1838. With traffic on the canal less than expected, surplus was sold, with Manchester Corporation buying 200 million imperial gallons (910 Ml) between 1844 and 1846, to top up Gorton Reservoir. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1847, which authorised the spending of £90,000 on improvements to the reservoir, but the work did not go ahead, as Manchester began obtaining its water from the Lake District shortly afterwards.
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