"Armboth House is pleasantly situated on the top of a gentle eminence under the Fells, whence the ground falls in easy slopes all round to the water's edge: the views from the house are commanding, and the eye rests upon the huge surfaces of Helvellyn and the Great Dodd. Raven Crag is a mighty mass of dark, frowning crags, that have braved the fury of many a storm. From its foot, looking diagonally across the lake, Dalehead Hall, amid woods of a modern growth, and, for the first time, the summit of Helvellyn, form a magnificent picture."
In the mid-19th Century Thirlmere was not like it is today. Originally there were two tarns in the valley Leathes water and Wythburn water which were separated by a low watery area crossed by a ‘Celtic’ bridge providing access between the area of Armboth House and Dalehead Hall at opposite sides of the lake. We have placed caches on both sides around these locations.
Manchester Corporation started their great engineering feat in 1890 and the laying of their gravity aqueduct from Thirlmere to Manchester.
The valley was flooded and most of the village of Wythburn and most of the other old properties in the valley including Armboth House, and eventually the small pub The Nag’s Head Inn and the school house had to be abandoned to the rising waters, although its church was fortunate to be high enough above the water level to be preserved and survives to this day.
For many years after its creation as a reservoir, the lake remained out of bounds to the public for reasons connected with the purity of the water. The fact that the lake was out of bounds for the best part of a century has meant that wild life was largely undisturbed. Red deer have populated the forest areas, and many varieties of birds flourish in the valley, which is also one of the protected areas for red squirrels.
The decision to plant conifers on the slopes partly, it was thought, to avoid erosion and silt in the lake, replaced the long depleted native forests which grew in the wake of the Ice Age -birch, pines, juniper, oak, ash, hazel and alder – depleted to industry and agriculture by The Stone Age people and the Norse settlers.
The trees and other growth have long since healed most of the scars; indeed there are far more trees around Thirlmere than there were when Manchester Corporation took over the valley. The lake assumed a unique dark and sombre quality, partly due to the conifers planted on the surrounding fells but efforts are now being made to soften the impact of the large patches of conifers by clearing and replacing them with native broadleaved trees once again.
Today, water not only flows south to the industrial north-west, but also north to supply the local communities of Keswick and Borrowdale, something not realised by everyone, so it is fair to say that those who live locally now benefit from Manchester’s efforts too - and the area surrounding the reservoir with woodlands and open fells that extend to the summit of Helvellyn, is a popular place for walking with trails and woodland paths, waterfalls and tarns.
The effects on people’s material and social well-being can only be imagined yet in retrospect Manchester Corporation proved to be a good landlord with a genuine concern to do the best for the area it had inherited and the people who lived and worked there. This tradition is being continued by United Utilities.
Gradually the memories are dying yet the Church still remains as a reminder of what once happened when an entire community was uprooted, a valley submerged and a way of life ended - Wythburn Church stands as the last memorial to that community.
In times of drought it is possible to glimpse the submerged buildings and ‘Celtic’ bridge as in the drought of 2003 when water levels dropped considerably and some islands were accessible on foot.
July 2013 – was potentially the driest July on record in 247 years, since records began and the longest heat-wave for 7 years
Interesting Fact: - During the Second World War, the Keswick Home Guard mounted a guard over the dam since there were fears that the Germans might invade by using the lake as a landing area for flying boats. There are still signs of mountings for machine guns.
Statistics - The 3 mile long lake was raised 54’ – the resulting reservoir holds 9,000 million gallons of water.
The dam is 58’ high with approximately the same height below the ground - 857’ long.
The aqueduct is 96 miles long and transports 50 million gallons per day via Dunmail Raise Treatment Works - plus 3 million gallons per day via St John’s Beck Treatment Works for local requirements.
5,000 million gallons of water transported between 1884 – 1984 the equivalent of 7200 tankers per day.
The cost of the project was £1.5 million – which equates to £100 million today.
Look at the beauty of the surrounding fells and woodlands reflected in the lake and the ever changing colours therein and who could argue that Thirlmere is not still beautiful if not more beautiful than before the transition.