Nidd Aqueduct

Nidd Aqueduct
Aqueduct carrying water from the Nidd Valley to Bradford over the River Wharfe near to Barden Bridge.
Specifications
Length	32 miles (51 km)
Status	Open
History
Original owner	Bradford Corporation Water Works
Principal engineer	Morrison & Mason Ltd
Date completed	1899
Geography
Start point	Scar House Reservoir, North Yorkshire
End point	Chellow Heights water treatment plant, West Yorkshire

The Nidd Aqueduct is an aqueduct or man-made watercourse in Yorkshire, England. It feeds water from Angram and Scar House reservoirs in upper Nidderdale, North Yorkshire 32 mi (51 km) to Bradford in West Yorkshire. The aqueduct supplies 21,000,000 imp gal (95,000 m³) of water per day to Chellow Heights water treatment works. The aqueduct and the reservoirs it connects to are all maintained by Yorkshire Water.

In 1892 Parliamentary Powers were granted for the City of Bradford to dam the River Nidd and its tributary Stone Beck in upper Nidderdale, and to build a conduit that delivered the water by gravity to Chellow Heights in Bradford. As Bradford has no major rivers running through it, the city needed fresh water for drinking and to be able to process wool (fulling). At that time, both Nidderdale and Bradford were in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

The first reservoir (Gouthwaite) was started in 1893 so that the water supply to the lower Nidd valley would not be interrupted when work on the upper dams began. In 1904 Bradford Water Works Corporation initiated the building of the next two reservoirs in the scheme in upper Nidderdale. Scar House and Angram reservoirs were constructed by James Watson and Lewis Mitchell respectively. The aqueduct was constructed by Morrison & Mason Ltd.

The aqueduct starts on the south bank of Scar House Reservoir a few metres west of the dam. It tunnels under Rain Stang hill for 2,486 yards (2,273 m) at a depth of 484 feet (148 m), and re-appears at Armathwaite Gill. There is then a short overground section across How Stean Beck before another tunnel, 1,408 yards (1,287 m) long, below Heathfield Moor. The aqueduct then tunnels below Greenhow Hill, 380 feet (120 m) below the summit, for 6,204 yards (5,673 m) before re-appearing at Skyreholme, near Appletreewick. It crosses the River Wharfe between Barden and Bolton Abbey, and then Barden Beck near Barden Beck Bridge. It then heads across open land again, crosses the A59 at Bolton Abbey Railway Station and runs to Chelker Reservoir above Addingham.