Open reservoirs near housing estates

[Trickyvee]

A very random memory from me.

In primary school one of my friends moved to another estate a couple of miles away. Not somewhere the rest of us were familiar with. She boasted that there was a big lake at the bottom of her garden and we were suitably impressed! However, we sort of knew where she was moving to and couldn't imagine there being any lakes there.

A few Years later I found out that there was an open reservoir in the estate that she moved to so she wasn't telling fibs. The reservoir was indeed her 'lake'.

It got me thinking if this was quite a common thing. I once tried to find it but couldn't and maps now show the reservoir to be covered, so it just looks like a field with grass. I did come across another closed reservoir in that estate back then and it had lots of strange pipes poking out of the grass, not unlike the pipes in the photo. I thought they looked like jumpers so I called it 'the field with the jumpers in'.

Anyway were open reservoirs quite common in the past? Did kids play in them? Can you remember any fields with weird pipes?

[Sly]

Re: Open reservoirs near housing estates

I used to cycle my bike around our local reservoir. So they're not common then? I thought every place had one or two. I know quite a few near where I live even now.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Open reservoirs near housing estates

I used to cycle my bike around our local reservoir. So they're not common then? I thought every place had one or two. I know quite a few near where I live even now.

Maybe it's just where I live. I still live around the same area and don't know of any others and I haven't come across any elsewhere, apart from much larger reservoirs on outskirts or in the countryside. I wondered if most urban ones had been covered for elf and safety...sounds like I'm wrong.

[jason h]

Re: Open reservoirs near housing estates

I still live not far from where I grew up and near a large Reservoir on a Council estate. I used to hear stories about how the water was very deep and there was a huge fan underneath. There was one story of a boy that went swimming on the reservoir one Summer and got pulled underneath the water to his death. These stories used to terrify me as a kid.

[Sly]

Re: Open reservoirs near housing estates

Where in Yorkshire are you? I had a gander at Wikipedia and it shows loads of Resi's, but it doesn't mentioned quite a few. The one I used to ride around is in Ardsley.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=east...,0.052314&z=15

A lot of people run and ride around it, apparently it's something like 1.1 miles around the outside so it's a good measurement for how far you've travelled. I used to see a lot of people training around it.

[themilkman]

Re: Open reservoirs near housing estates

Maybe it's just where I live. I still live around the same area and don't know of any others and I haven't come across any elsewhere, apart from much larger reservoirs on outskirts or in the countryside. I wondered if most urban ones had been covered for elf and safety...sounds like I'm wrong.

You're not wrong.

Two years ago I had to go to a 'call out' in a wooded and grassed area near a council estate, where an explosion was reported.

As it turned out, some local chavs had managed to break through the top of a grassed over reservoir and had been throwing fireworks in there.........it wasn't really obvious what it was until we had a look with a cctv camera and were amazed to see a large underground water reservoir.

It turns out it was privately owned, someone had bought it at auction (unseen) a couple of years previously.........they thought they were buying a reservoir as in a 'lake', not a buried hole.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Open reservoirs near housing estates

Where in Yorkshire are you? I had a gander at Wikipedia and it shows loads of Resi's, but it doesn't mentioned quite a few. The one I used to ride around is in Ardsley.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=east...,0.052314&z=15

A lot of people run and ride around it, apparently it's something like 1.1 miles around the outside so it's a good measurement for how far you've travelled. I used to see a lot of people training around it.

This looks like one of the bigger 'edge of town' ones. Looks rather pleasant from the air! I've attached a snap of the ones I was talking about. They're bang in the middle of the sprawl. The big square at the top is the one that was always covered. The smaller square at the bottom used to be open.