Thirlmere - Blencathra from Sosgill Bridge ©Andrew Locking ©Andrew Bridge Sosgill from Blencathra - Thirlmere
Thirlmere
Although relatively small in size, the Today, it is the physical aspects of the thirsty, fast-growing urban population valley of Thirlmere, formerly known water industry that stand out in the in Manchester, and the dam was built. as Wythburn, is dominated by its large main valley. The Thirlmere reservoir Today, United Utilities owns 4,700 reservoir and its looming, steep-sided is the most obvious of these but the hectares of land in the Thirlmere Valley fells. The bulk of Hellvellyn hangs dam infrastructure itself is considered and the reservoir continues to supply impressively over its eastern edge with to be of historic value. It was the first around 11% of the water demand of the mighty Skiddaw and Blencathra ever masonry gravity dam and one of the North West of England. to the north. Dunmail Raise to the only two arch dams in England and it south of Thirlmere is considered to be supplies Manchester with water via a But despite the defeat, the battle was the boundary between the north and 96-mile long underground aqueduct. a significant moment in the history south Lake District. The famous cairn Other industries to impact Thirlmere of the conservation movement, both at the summit of Dunmail Raise is said were copper and lead mining as well as in the UK and globally. It inspired the to be the burial place of King Dunmail, slate quarrying. formation of the National Trust and it the last monarch of the medieval brought to a head the appreciation of kingdom of Cumbria, dating to around Thirlmere’s history tells the story of the vulnerability of the Lake District 945AD. a politicised landscape preservation landscape, and public access to it. movement, where the struggle One of the best-known Lakeland between natural beauty and industry Thirlmere is also greatly important archaeological sites is the stone was tested on a national scale for to the Romantic writers’ and artists’ circle at Castlerigg, just to the east the very first time. The Thirlmere movement and was the location for of Keswick, which probably dates to Defence Association formed in 1877 the ‘Rock of Names’ - the customary Neolithic times and sits in the dramatic to oppose the flooding of the valley meeting point for the Wordsworths natural amphitheatre formed by the and the creation of the reservoir. and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and surrounding fells. There are also good Visionaries such as Canon Rawnsley now reconstructed and relocated to examples of Neolithic rock art at Steel and the social reformer Octavia Hill, Dove Cottage in Grasmere. Thirlmere End and a Bronze Age ring cairn on influenced by the philosophy of John was also the inspiration for William Armboth Fell. Ruskin, joined the fight. But Parliament Wordsworth’s poem ‘The Waggoner’ voted in favour of the Manchester and Walter Scott’s poem ‘The Bridal of Corporation Water Works and the Triermain’ and a place that continues to inspire visitors to this day.
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