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Healey Nab

Tourist attractions in ChorleyWest Pennine Moors
Healey Nab, Chorley
Healey Nab, Chorley

Healey Nab or "The Nab" is an area of countryside owned partly by Lancashire County Council containing rolling hills, moorland, woodland, ponds and streams to the east of Chorley, Lancashire, between the M61 and the West Pennine Moors. To its southeast is Anglezarke Reservoir and to its northeast is White Coppice. The name "Healey Nab" is derived from heagh (high) and ley (woodland). "Nab" is believed to derive from the Middle-English nabb, meaning promontory or headland. The area is popular with walkers; a network of hiking trails criss-crosses it. It has two small man-made lakes: Bottom Lodge, and Top Lodge, a private fishing lake. They used to be linked to Lower Healey Bleach Works, a finishing works of the town's cotton industry, whose remaining structure has been incorporated into the site's conversion into a small industrial estate. The summit is Grey Heights, and near it is a disused quarry known as Devil's Rock. Its highest point is Grey Heights, at 682 feet, with views of Chorley, the skyline of Preston, Fiddlers Ferry power station in Merseyside, Jodrell Bank Telescope, and the silhouette of Blackpool Tower, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and the Irish Sea. From Chorley, "The Nab" dominates the landscape and is the first significant height gain in the transition from a heavily populated area to the moorland of the West Pennine Moors.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Healey Nab (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

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Latitude Longitude
N 53.6568 ° E -2.5953 °
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Red Route
PR6 9BU , Cowling
England, United Kingdom
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Healey Nab, Chorley
Healey Nab, Chorley
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Anglezarke Reservoir
Anglezarke Reservoir

Anglezarke Reservoir is the largest reservoir in the Rivington chain to the west of Anglezarke in Lancashire, England. Anglezarke Reservoir has three embankments: the Charnock Embankment, the longest, is 850 yards (777 m) long and 31 feet (9.45 m) high, the Knowsley Embankment is 240 yards (219.5 m) long and 45 feet (14 m) high and the Heapey Embankment is 280 feet (85.3 m) long and 32 feet (9.75 m) high. It is fed by the River Yarrow, which has been diverted from its original course which is now covered by the Knowsley Embankment. It served the city of Liverpool before its current status as a supply mainly for Wigan. The original `Rivington Pike Scheme' was undertaken by Thomas Hawksley between 1850 and 1857 for the Liverpool Corporation Waterworks. The scheme was to construct five reservoirs and a water treatment works at the south end of Lower Rivington with a 17-mile (27 km) pipeline to storage reservoirs at Prescot. Water from two higher level reservoirs, Rake Brook and Lower Roddlesworth, was carried south in `The Goit', a channel connecting them to the reservoirs.In November 1997, the reservoir was refilled after the 1997 summer heat wave. The water flow was so large that the reservoir required an emergency draw-down. With the water level at a temporary low, there was an opportunity to inspect the Heapey embankment on Moor Road, which had been leaking since the 1960s. The condition of the embankment and surrounding strata were such that a phased grouting operation was required to remedy the leakage. The reservoir was refilled, but was still leaking. After a second grouting and refill operation, the embankment was deemed leak-free. It appears that the original cause of the leak was an 18-inch cast iron draw-off pipe which supplied White Brook to the north of the embankment. The trench for the pipe was cut much deeper than needed, through a glacial meltwater channel. However, shutting the pipe off in the 1970s failed to remedy the situation. Waterman's Cottage was built by Liverpool Corporation on the west bank of the reservoir. The cottage is a Tudor-style structure also known as Heapey Cottage. It was occupied by Denis and Anne Oakden in the 1940s. Denis worked for the Water Authority and moved to the property after several years in Porch Cottages, White Coppice.To the east of the reservoir is the small High Bullough reservoir and the Anglezarke Moors, Upper Rivington Reservoir is to the south and Healey Nab to the north-west. The area is now a wildlife haven, with a Woodland Trail which links to High Bullough reservoir.

High Bullough Reservoir
High Bullough Reservoir

High Bullough Reservoir is the oldest of all the reservoirs in the Rivington chain, having been authorised by an Act of Parliament obtained in 1846 and completed in 1850. It was built for Chorley Waterworks by the engineer John Frederick Bateman, who had estimated the cost of the project while working for Edwin Chadwick's Towns Improvement Company, and had then acted as Engineer for the project. The outlet consisted of a pipe running through the dam, and supported by two masonry piers where it ran through the central clay puddle. The outlet valve was at the downstream end of the dam, and although this configuration is no longer thought to be good practice, there have been no serious issues with the reservoir throughout its operational life. The earth dam had a maximum height of 39 feet (12 m), was 988 feet (301 m) long and impounded 55 million imperial gallons (250 Ml) of water.Popular with walkers, it forms part of the Anglezarke trail, although it is also accessible from Manor House. It was originally named Chorley Reservoir. There are a number of websites that state that High Bullough Reservoir is no longer used to supply drinking water, but the reservoir was still contained in a list of reservoirs in the Rivington Chain when United Utilities issued an application for a drought permit to reduce compensation flows to the River Yarrow in mid-2018.A huge staircase, made from timber, was created between the reservoir and nearby Manor House. Known as Jacob's Ladder, the remains can be seen on the east side of the water.