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When Barden Moor Upper Reservoir was being constructed between 1876 and 1882 a standard gauge railway line was laid from Halton Height to carry goods, material and men on a circuitous 2½ mile route to the site of the reservoir. The railway terminus was on the north side of the road just over the brow of the hill, past the present informal car park.
Two encampments of navvy huts were constructed in 1876, one at the site of the reservoir which housed about 250 people including navvies and some of their families. The other at Halton Height housed about 200 navvies and families and stood on the site of the car park and on the north side of the road near the summit where faint outlines of some of the huts can still be seen.
Five engines were used over the course of the construction of the reservoir. The first, named ‘Scott’, arrived at Halton Height on 2nd January 1877, followed by an unnamed engine on 13th August 1877. In April 1879 came ‘Jingo’ (pictured above), then ‘Bruce’ and ‘Wallace’ in February 1880. Jingo, Bruce and Wallace were constructed by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds and were newly built when they came to Halton Height. They were painted green, lined and varnished.
‘Scott’ arrived at Skipton Station from Leeds on 28th December 1876 and according to the Craven Herald weighed 21 tons and was drawn by 17 horses. In her diary for 29th December, Annie Parker Greenwood of the Mason’s Arms Eastby wrote of the difficulties encountered in hauling the engine up to Halton Height. She went to Eastby Mill, which was owned by her Uncles Peter & William Parker, to get a view of the horses and men pulling it up from Bridge End through Eastby. “In the morning I went up to the Mill & looked out of the Office to see the Locomotive Engine for the New Tramroad to the Reservoir come up the Hill. My word there was some pulling.”
The Mason’s Arms also had a busy day with many callers coming to view the Engine. Among the callers was an Engineer from Hunslet Engine Company, and Thomas Parkinson Brown, the Skipton Coroner, who was “taking notes” – no doubt in case of a fatality.
In the afternoon Annie went up Eastby Bank along with Thomas Hey, the Manager of Eastby Mill, and her 8 year old brother Tom, but remarked that the Engine was being left at the bottom overnight as they could not negotiate the bends.
On the following day (30th December) she wrote: “Early in the Morning the whole of the workmen of Barden Moor came down, numbered about two hundred. They did not manage the Engine up however as it was so awful wet, but it did make us busy. In the evening they lit the Engine and an Engineer from the Moor, Alexander (Sandy) McDonald was set to watch it overnight.”
Sunday 31st December: “any amount of Skiptonians came, some rather noisy, all up to see the Engine, it made us rather busy again.”
Monday 1st January 1877: “This Morning came in very wet with sleet & snow in the Afternoon. All the Navvies, sub contractors etc came down… They got the Engine up to the first turn onto the Moor.”
Tuesday 2nd January 1877: “… they got the Engine up to the top. There was a splendid breeze on the Moor and we walked all along the tramroad nearly up to the high huts, then it was coming dark, so we ran back, we did look soft all running as hard as ever we could.”
It had taken five days to haul the first Engine with 17 horses, so when the second Engine, weighing 18 tons, arrived at Skipton in August 1877 a team of 32 horses and nearly 100 men were used to haul it the 4½ miles to Halton Height via the tortuous Eastby Bank. This time it took 15 hours. What a spectacle it must have been for the people of Embsay and Eastby.
The third Engine ‘Jingo’ weighed 20 tons, excluding coal and water, and it was decided to transport it from Leeds by road with the use of steam power. After arriving at Skipton it left on the final leg of its journey to Halton Height at one o’clock in the afternoon of the 24th April 1879. The Leeds Mercury reported that it was followed by crowds of people and after travelling through Embsay, it arrived at Eastby ‘without a hitch’. From there it was hauled up Eastby Bank by the use of a winding-drum attached to the rear axle, and a steel rope. It took half a dozen stages to get it to the top, stopping each time to ‘scotch’ the wheels and uncoil the ropes. The Engine arrived safely at Halton Height at 6 o’clock. The whole operation, under the supervision of Mr Henry McClaren of the Hunslet Engine Company, had taken only 5 hours and required only 8 men to drive the engine and attend to the brakes and the load.
At the end of their work on Barden Moor three of the engines were offered for sale at Skipton Station on 5th April 1883. ‘Jingo’ was sold to Lucas & Air of Hull for use on the building of the Hull & Barnsley Railway and Dock; and ‘Bruce’ and ‘Wallace’ were sold to Kirk & Randall for the construction of Tilbury Docks on the river Thames which opened in 1886. The railway tracks, huts and equipment were also sold for use at other sites, leaving little trace of the six years of intense construction.
David Turner, Embsay with Eastby Historical Research Group
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