How was Scar House Reservoir built?
One of the most impressive and historically interesting reservoirs in the AONB is Scar House. Find out more about the hugely impressive feats of engineering that resulted in its creation.
As you travel up the valley the dam is hidden by the twists and turns in the landscape, but as you move closer it grows out of the ground to form a 71m high and 600m long barrier holding back around 2,200 million gallons of water. (That is about the same amount as 25,000 25 metre swimming pools!)
On 5th October 1921 the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Gadie, cut the first piece of soil from the site to start the excavation of the foundations for the dam. The foundations were dug first, deep into the limestone over 200 feet down.
Steam powered excavators were used to remove the rock, but at times hand drilling and explosive charges had to be used to make progress. It took over three years to complete the excavation of the foundations.
Two 'blondin' cranes (cable cranes) were put in place to move concrete and stone into place across the valley. A steel rope extended between the two cranes had a pulley system to move large buckets across from the concrete mixing plant. The support struts for the cranes can still be seen in the hillside today.
On the 5th June 1925 Lieut. Col Anthony Gadie laid the first batch of concrete at the base of the dam. The navies would lay the concrete wearing leather britches to protect their skin.
The dam was gradually built up using a lining of perfectly carved stones. The raw limestone was extracted by hand and using explosives from the quarries up on the hillsides. Navvies used hammers and steel rods to split the stones into the sizes required.
A gravity railway system was used to move the men and stone up and down the hillside. As a carriage came down it would pull another one back up. The space between was filled with rubble and concrete to create a sturdy structure. The dam was built up in layers gradually getting higher and higher to eventually create a great engineering feat to hold over 2000 million gallons of water for Bradford and its surrounding villages and towns.
Scar House Reservoir was completed in 1936, taking 15 years to build. The Dam is 71 metres high, 600m long and covers 172 acres.