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TV series tells story of drowned Watergrove village

23/12/2004

THE STORY of the drowned village of Watergrove will be shown on television on Tuesday (28th).

'Go North West' has been pulling in 500,000 viewers since it came on air last month and the tale of how Watergrove Reservoir was created in the 1930s is next up.

Watergrove was submerged in water in one of the great local engineering feats of the era. Rochdale Council got government permission to go ahead with the project to solve its drinking water crisis. By the early 1930s it was buying one million gallons of water per year from Oldham.

Local historian Allen Holt, who has written a book about Watergrove, tells host Jonathan Morris the history of the area.

The Granada TV series has been produced by Richard Chadwick, who grew up in Wardle and visited Watergrove Reservoir on field trips from St James' Primary School.

Hollingworth Lake Visitors Centre, another local tourist attraction, is also featured briefly in the programme.

Mr Chadwick, who now lives in Manchester, said: "The series has proved very popular with viewers and will give a lot of good publicity to Watergrove."