Watergrove Reservoir, Wardle, Rochdale, OL12 9EN, 2021. Fly Around & Walk Around

The area around Watergrove Reservoir includes walking trails with spectacular views, bird watching, fishing and a link to the Pennine Bridleway. The open moorland above Watergrove makes for a more rugged landscape than the lower valleys.
The area's mixture of moorland, young woodland, wetland and rough pasture - and the reservoir itself - offers a large variety of habitats and a fascinating wealth of archaeological remains.
The village of Watergrove sat nestled beneath a horseshoe ridge of hills on its northern side. It was largely a Victorian creation, but the farms that surrounded it dated from the 1700s. It would have been a wild but picturesque spot, with surrounding sheep-grazed heather and whinberry moorlands. Stone was quarried from the hills and used to build the local farms and houses, coal was mined too. All had to be abandoned in the 1930s when the decision was made to create a large reservoir to supply Rochdale with drinking water. The water authority was insistent that not just the village should disappear, covered by the new lake, but the thirty surrounding farms above the waterline would be knocked down too.