Black Moss Reservoirs

There are two reservoirs at Black Moss, in the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Upper Black Moss, was built first, with the larger Lower Black Moss finished nine years later. Their job was to help give hard-working people in the booming town of Nelson a safe, clean, healthy supply of drinking water.

Nineteenth century Nelson was not a place to go drinking. The demand for textiles meant its mills were booming, and so was its population. But in the mid 1800s most of the townsfolk water came from Walverden Stream, which is also where their sewage went.

Nelson’s town fathers began building reservoirs in the nearby hills. Black Moss was built in 1894 and 1903 and also supplied part of the village of Barley.

United Utilities doesn’t use Black Moss water for drinking at the moment, because there are better and more abundant sources of water nearby.

But Black Moss is still a very important part of our drinking water supply. Why? Well, we use it to keep local streams like Pendle Water topped up. That means we can keep more of the water we gather in other places without affecting the environment. This type of reservoir is called a compensation reservoir, because the water it puts back into the environment compensates for what we need to take out to drink.

Black Moss Reservoirs is in Forest Of Bowland AONB, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Created: 15  December  2019  Edited: 29  November  2023