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Richard looks back to childhood for TV series

28/ 9/2004

THE STORY of one of Rochdale's submerged villages will be featured in a new programme about North West tourist attractions.

The story of Watergrove Reservoir will be told on Granada Television's 'Go North West' series.

The series is produced by Richard Chadwick, who grew up in Wardle and went on field trips to Watergrove when he was a St James' Primary School pupil.

He said: "The first series we did was about well-known places such as Blackpool Pleasure Beach and the Albert Dock in Liverpool.

"In the second we wanted to do more about hidden gems and you can't get more hidden than a village under a reservoir.

"I don't think a lot of people know about Watergrove and it has a very interesting history, so I thought it would be a very good idea to have it on the show."

Watergrove Reservoir was built in the 1930s to help solve Rochdale's drinking water crisis.

At that time the council was buying one million gallons of water per year from Oldham so the controversial decision was taken to submerge Watergrove, which is one of the wettest parts of Rochdale.

Watergrove will be one of the places featured in the last programme in the series, which is scheduled to be broadcast on 28 December and will also include some information about the village buried under Hollingworth Lake.

Lloyd Grossman presents the show with actor Jonathan Morris.

Morris visited the reservoir and interviewed Milnrow author, Allen Holt, who wrote a book on the building of the reservoir and the village that lay beneath it.

The West Pennine Sailboard Club is also featured as the programme explores a range of different activities on offer at Watergrove.