The Blackmoor Tunnel

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Wed 29 Oct, 2008 10:39 am

I could but I doubt my employers would be happy

Post by **chameleon** » Wed 29 Oct, 2008 10:51 am

Cardiarms wrote: I could but I doubt my employers would be happy

Understood - maybe we should file an FOI request

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Tue 25 Nov, 2008 10:29 pm

Cardiarms wrote: From the arches the water is piped around Dunstarn farm to the ring road, roughly following the 100m contour, around the north of the cricket pitch and then under the ringroad. It then follows the route of the path through Weetwood woods to the Hollies and on to the works. the stuff in the ground is a mixture of 1920's and 1980's. Anything earlier will have been buldozed when replaced and you'd need to have less than a 40" waist to fit through them.There are two tunnels, the new one is live, the other abandoned. Both follow a straight line from Smith's Shaft to the arches. The shafts are related to the old abadoned tunnel only. Is this is the path of the water in later years and as it goes under the ring road I assume it is pumped somewhere???

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Tue 25 Nov, 2008 10:31 pm

[quotenick="chameleon"][quotenick="The Parksider"] chameleon wrote: I've added it to my list of 'summer outing must go tos'.... it's going to be a busy one (If I get the wife off Ancestry!). Did you manage to get to the woods at weetwood to see if you can spot any traces of the second aqueduct?

Post by **chameleon** » Tue 25 Nov, 2008 11:13 pm

[quotenick="The Parksider"][quotenick="chameleon"] The Parksider wrote: chameleon wrote: I've added it to my list of 'summer outing must go tos'.... it's going to be a busy one (If I get the wife off Ancestry!). Did you manage to get to the woods at weetwood to see if you can spot any traces of the second aqueduct? No unfortunately not yet - it has been a very busy year with heavy demands on spare time. I will get there though.Cardiarms does seem to confirm ,ore or less what we had collectively decided I think which is gratifying; he keeps popping intriguing little bits in here for us to ponder - obviously rather 'in the know'

AliB · Post by **AliB** » Sun 01 Mar, 2009 5:54 pm

Downstream of the Seven Arches Aqueduct, the structure which originally carried the water was described as an open channel which followed the contours down to Headingley water works. This is the conduit Steve Burt refers to. Rather than being a tunnel it probably had masonry walls and maybe a lead lining and a stone lid (like the duct on the aqueduct). However the conduit was replaced in the 1860s by a cast iron pipe. In view of all that has gone on in the area since, there may be bits and pieces of the old masonry left but there is very unlikely to be an intact tunnel. I can't imagine Yorkshire Water would be very happy about would-be amateur archaeologists 'putting in trial trenches' in the vicinity of their water mains to look for it!

Post by **chameleon** » Sun 01 Mar, 2009 6:38 pm

AliB wrote: Downstream of the Seven Arches Aqueduct, the structure which originally carried the water was described as an open channel which followed the contours down to Headingley water works. This is the conduit Steve Burt refers to. Rather than being a tunnel it probably had masonry walls and maybe a lead lining and a stone lid (like the duct on the aqueduct). However the conduit was replaced in the 1860s by a cast iron pipe. In view of all that has gone on in the area since, there may be bits and pieces of the old masonry left but there is very unlikely to be an intact tunnel. I can't imagine Yorkshire Water would be very happy about would-be amateur archaeologists 'putting in trial trenches' in the vicinity of their water mains to look for it! As if anyone would - perish the thought AliB! But we might ask the farmer if we could dig a wee hole or too (The trench does show as a prominent feature on aerisl views which suugests little disturbance to the majority of the structure btw. We learned as you say, that at least two pipes were later used to convey the water and even more recently following development at the works, that one capped-off - and still live - 36" main was found in the old meter house at Headingly).

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Mon 30 Aug, 2010 1:28 pm

David Raven wrote: I was working at Blackmoor Court flats today and one of the residents there showed me a copy of a Yorkshire Water large-scale map showing the tunnels etc. in the area.It actually shows two tunnels running parallell to each other, one labelled 'old' and one 'new'. Both were also labelled 'abandoned'. The Blackmoor shaft and the nearby 'Verity's shaft' in the Buckstone estate aren't on the same tunnel (I forget which was on the 'old' and which was on the 'new'). I asked one of the other residents how the water got from Eccup to Leeds now, if both the tunnels are abandoned. He told me that a new pipe was sunk, which can be seen near the 'Seven Arches' in the woods. Although this wasn't shown on the Yorkshire Water map!(I'm a little confused now!)... The Blackmoor shaft is on the 'New Blackmoor Tunnel Raw' and the Verity's shaft is on the 'Old Blackmoor Tunnel Raw'. Johnson's shaft is also on the latter.

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Mon 30 Aug, 2010 4:03 pm

I've just been looking at the old-maps.co.uk website and I notice that what we are calling 'Blackmoor shaft' (which on the Yorkshire Water maps is located but not named) is labelled 'Shaft' on the 1894/95 and 1909 maps but is called 'King Lane Shaft' on the 1921, 1934 and 1938 maps in the website.

Ems6258 · Post by **Ems6258** » Sun 10 Oct, 2010 4:29 pm

Hi!Im doing a project on the eccup reservoir, blackwell tunnel and seven arches aqueduct for my history degree.does anyone know the best place to get information?im getting quite a bit of conflicting evidence about date of cnstruction ect!!