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Road Diversion

Certain sections of road were diverted in the course of the works at Stocks. The Bentham and Clapham to Clitheroe Road at Bridge House, Dale Head was diverted for a length of 1,197 yards.

The Bentham Road which crossed the valley and passed through Stocks-in-Bowland via Chapel House Bridge was eventually blocked and a proposed diversion around the head of the reservoir was never actually built.  

Lane blocked off behind the Vicarage, Dalehead. Church in the background

Photograph used by kind permission of Mr. M.  Pye

The same view towards the former Vicarage - 2003

“The first job that I did was carting stone for the works. I was on the road from the Vicarage to the forestry. I was 16 or 17 when I was doing that. When I started the first stone we were carting was from the old houses that had been demolished: Higher Croft House and Birch Hill. The man who last lived at Higher Croft House was Jimmy Smith and he became an engine driver. 

The foreman overseeing the road building gang lived at the "Traveller’s Rest" at Stocks; we called him “Ocking”.

The road took a couple of years’ full time work to make. There were about four carts carting stone for the road. They didn’t dig foundations; they put big stones at the sides then filled in the middle with “rubbish” stone. That’s why the road is no good. The first piece from the Vicarage across the first field “never was nowt”, but then the rest of the road was a bit drier. 

The road finished about the time we quit Lower Croft House in 1932.” (T. Swales)

In order to divert the Bowland Knotts road between Clapham and Clitheroe, an embankment and culvert, now commonly known as the "causeway", to cross Bridge House (or Bottoms) Beck had to be constructed. The culvert is 14ft by 11ft. 6ins., semi-circular at top and bottom and 126 feet long. The embankment is 45 feet maximum height.

Construction of the Bridge House Beck culvert

Photograph used by kind permission of Mrs. J. Lawson

Construction of the Bridge House Beck culvert & embankment- May 1930

Photograph used by kind permission of Mr. A. Walmsley

Concrete was poured into timber and steel shuttering to produce the Bottoms Beck culvert. Stone for the facing of the embankment was brought by rail from Jumbles Quarry.

Construction of the Bridge House / Bottoms Beck culvert & embankment

 

Bottoms Beck Culvert and embankment - low water,  Autumn 2003