OneGuyFromBarlick

COUNTY BROOK

I make no apology for going back to the subject of drainage. The more we know about it the better any decisions to alleviate floods will be.
A friend of mine mentioned that 'Salterforth Lake', the pooling of water in the Bottoms to the west of Kelbrook, was bigger than he had ever seen it before. There is very little fall in that section of the valley and water doesn't get away easily towards Earby and the Aire Basin. You have to go back up the hill on to Whitemoor to fully understand the reasons why it is sometimes worse than others. Most of the water on Whitemoor drains eastwards but due to the contours of the land, swings sharply to the left after Barlick and heads off down into the Ribble catchment. However, funnily enough, the drainage from the west end of the moor heads down the hill, feeds what is now Whitemoor Reservoir and continues down into the valley past there via what we call County Brook but which used to be the Black Brook. It runs into Salterforth bottoms and if the flow is heavier than the fall in the valley can cope with it pools there.
When the canal was built at the end of the 18th century one of the reasons it was diverted northwards to include Barlick was that by doing so it could take advantage of the County Brook to supply the summit level of the canal. A canal is only as good as the supply of water to the summit level. Water let down from the reservoir runs into the canal just below County Brook Mill. On the opposite bank you can see some arched openings in the retaining wall above the valley. Any excess of water in the canal at this point flows over the cills and continues down the bed of the old Black Brook into the valley and the Bottoms.
When the canal was busy, water was continually drawn off at both ends of the summit level to operate the locks and so the amount of flow over the cills down towards Salterforth was limited and the drains in the valley and Earby could cope.
It is no accident that flooding at Lane Ends in Earby (The level crossing area) became more frequent as the levels of traffic on the canal decreased after the 1950s. Less water was used for the locks and more went down the hill towards the Bottoms. This is what has happened over the last few days, no leisure traffic on the canal because it is winter. more water running down the bed of the old Black Brook and eventually more weight of water in the bottoms and Earby.
The canal is an essential component of the drainage system and these arches in the bank are a good example. If you weren't looking for them you could easily miss them but they are an important factor in water levels in the valley. Definitely a forgotten corner!




The overflow arches on the canal at County Brook.

Your post is a wonderful example of how maintaining continuity and a knowledge of history are essential in modern life.

Thank you Stanley.

At yesterday's flooding 'Roadshow' at Earby, me and Pendle Council staff were emphasising to Environment Agency staff the possible role of the canal in conveying water over the watershed into the Aire catchment and the contribution it may be making to water levels in Earby.

The emergency weirs that I'm aware of on the summit pound of the canal are this one at County Brook, the one near the New Road at Salterforth and one above Greenberfield Farm. Is there a weir between Foulridge tunnel and the locks at Barrowford?

On Boxing Day, water levels in the canal were high enough for the canal to be washing over the two path at its lowest points. The amount of water going over these weirs was phenomenal. When I spoke to the Canal and Rivers Trust, they said the sluices at the locks were as open as they could be, but the water level remained stubbornly high.

I don't have enough understanding of the system to judge if water is being conveyed over the watershed and affecting Earby, but at least the people carrying out a study of the catchment are aware of the possibility.

There should be relief weirs on each full pound length of the canal to avoid an overflow situation on any length. If this is the case, if the top length is overwhelmed you should be able to relieve the level in an emergency by opening the lock paddles to drain to the next level. I don't think there are weirs between every lock in a flight but you could lower the level on the top length by opening paddles on each top gate in the flight with the bottom gates open. This is the method used to drain between the locks when maintenance is required. I would think the Marton length between the bottom lock at Barlick and Bank Newton would be more than capable of taking some of the excess. Worth asking to find out the viability if you need to pump flood waters into the top length.

Thanks Tiz... That's the intention. Next week's is on the same subject but nearer Earby.... The thing to remember is that the more water we send forward, the worse the problem becomes downstream... It's a complicated subject!

Stanley is on the button with the problem of sending the water into the lower stretches of the canal, Ian...

My conversations with CART on Boxing Day followed a similar line of reasoning; they could only push so much into the pounds at either side of the summit stretch or they'd end up overwhelming Skipton and Leeds etc (which happened to a degree).

At Ghyll Meadows, we eventually put three pumps worth of water into the improved section of culvert on Meadow Way without overwhelming the capacity of the culvert at that point. (We are now having a special manhole cover constructed with 90 degree connections for several hoses for use in emergencies.)

I don't know how long it is since anyone checked but the bottom of Gisburn old track the ditch on the side of the track which picks up quite a bit of water, terminates in a triangular section at the bottom. From there the water can be sent either across to Whitemoor reservoir or allowed to go straight down the road to Slipper Hill reservoir. The flow was controlled by a simple system of small weirs and the waterman from Whitemoor used to adjust the flows to suit the condition of the two reservoirs which of course were both serving the canal. I doubt if they have been touched for years and wonder where the main flow is going now. Doesn't seem important but if it goes to Whitemoor it ends up in Earby..... I know about it because I am a nosey bugger....

Thanks Stanley; I'll pass that on...

Doubtful if any work done on those ditches in years; there's been a lot more water rushing down from Gisburn Old Track onto the top road this last year than was previously the case. This is something I've reported to the highway people at county. (Apart from putting an 'ICE' warning sign out, there's been no apparent activity by the authorities...)

The natural flow for that water is down the big gulley at the side of the road going on to The Cross Gaits and Slipper Hill. It was the canal who put in the drain across Sunnybank to get water into Whitemoor Reservoir. It picks up the excess water from the Black Dyke which isn't sent down the main drain from there which heads towards Blacko. John Clayton and I suspect there was a corn mill on that flow above Blacko. It's marked on the Whitemoor Map on the site.....

Bumped and image restored. As Peter says and David Whipp illustrates, it's important to discuss the history and old knowledge.

Interesting

Still important to keep the knowledge alive.....

Essential knowledge still. People tend to forget and it's important that we bump this regularly!