Had a look around the old Westworth Reservoir. This was one of my regular jaunts when I lived in Guisborough in the 1980s. Now just a puddle, it was a proper reservoir then, over 15,000 square yards, although no longer in use. Very popular with the local lads for swimming if I recall. A public footpath skirted the old shoreline but that is now overgrown and forgotten, only existing as a red dashed line on the map. The Westworth Plantation which has been substantially felled with just a few remnants left on the skyline.
The reservoir was built in the 1870s by the Guisborough Water Company in response to the unsanitary conditions that were prevalent in the town. House owners were responsible for connecting to the mains and were charged according to the size of the property. For the poor then, the town’s wells continued to be used, probably contributing to several disease outbreaks in the 1890s.
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