# The lost village of West End - Yorkshire, Jan '09



## boxfrenzy

During a visit to the library with my kids last Spring, I was flicking through a book when I found a brilliant picture. It showed a partially submerged house, as the rising waters of a new reservoir flooded a valley. I looked for the book a fair few times afterwards, but was unable to find it. I was disappointed not to have remembered where it was, as it looked great.

Last weekend, I headed north of Otley, Yorkshire, to check out a place which looked reasonable on Google Maps; various ruined buildings, fairly close together. Further investigation revealed this was the remains of the abandoned village of West End.
I'm not sure what this building was. Chapel, house, or just a barn? It was on the side of what had once been a road.






Little remained except the walls. Part of the roof was missing and animals obviously sheltered from the biting Yorkshire winds here. The stone step looked very worn.





I did like the circular windows, high up at the end of each part of the building.





I followed the track down to Thruscross reservoir, a couple of minutes from here. Beneath the ice was the remains of West End village, abandoned in the mid 1960's and flooded to provide water for the growing population of Leeds.
This was West End Mill, a flax mill that was once thriving in the late 1800's and early years of the twentieth century.





This is the mill before the village was flooded. The river Washburn flows past, and under a single track bridge.





Much of the village was cleared before the dam was built. Here is another picture I didn't take inside the mill.





Today, the water level is where it normally is. A couple of times, in the 1960's and the 1990's the water level has gone down enough to see the foundations of the houses and church. Much of the buildings were demolished, except this wall of the mill.





The flooding of the village meant houses, a school, the mill, th church and the graveyard became submerged. The graves were exhumed and reburied. Here is the church of West End.





Apparently, under the water, the old West End bridge remains. I like that fact.
Here it is readers. The smoke in the background is from the clearance of the area before flooding.





On the banks of Thruscross reservoir are the ruins of another house, called Holme Field Head.





The ground floor of the house is interesting. It looks like it was not for people - animals or storage. There were three arched rooms.





The end room.





They were connected by a dark stone corridor, and a collapsed spiral staircase up into the house. Magnifying glass users may just be able to see the remains of the stairs on the left of the pile of stone at the end of the corridor.





The stone floor remained, although the other floors and roof had long disappeared. Beneath here were the arched rooms.





Holme Field head. I could hear the sound of water very close to the right of the house. Because of the snow cover, sadly I was unable to see whether there was a well.





A last view of Holme Field Head and outbuilding, looking down into the valley where the village of West End once was.





Knowing what the village was called meant that I was able to go back to the library and find the book that I had been looking at, last spring. This is the picture, horrifically scanned, that I really liked.



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## ThenewMendoza

Great stuff, 'lost villages' are a fascinating subject.

M


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## night crawler

Good little report that, No doubt there are other places like that where valleys have been flooded


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## mr--rick

nice i like it .....good work


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## Lightbuoy

Liking the results from your bit of researching -paid-off by the looks of it 

Those stairs going up to now't are crazy!!!

Ta for sharing BF


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## Mole Man

That is a very good bit of work there boxfrenzy, there was a place like this on the news a few years ago and when there was a drought and the water was low you could walk down to a house and bridge, I thinks that was Yorkshire too.


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## Seahorse

Excellent report. Almost makes me want to jump on a train to Yorkshire. 

Maybe leave it until the summer.


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## TK421

Thats an excellent peice of research there mate, you must have been brimming with excitment with every building you uncovered! Really enjoyed reading this report, and like many others, flooded villages really interest me.


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## UrbanX

Fantastic report, love the write up too. Looks great in the snow too!


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## oldscrote

I saw one in the Lake District in the 1990s where the reservoir level had dropped to reveal the bridge and the remains of the village,Apparently the R A F used it for bombing practice after abandonment much to the severe pissed offness the ex inhabitants .Lovely report thanks for posting.


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## Foxylady

That's a fabulous discovery. It must have been great fun finding the various remains and putting the research together. I'd love to find stuff like this.


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## Labb

Nice pictures. I do not prefer the B & W shots, but these are brilliant. Good find.


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## the_historian

Great pics and research, mate.


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## Urban Mole

Is this the same place, or another --->http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/weirdworld/Revealed--secret-of-Leeds39.3965476.jp


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## el gringo

Great report, its amazing seeing the remains of the mill, even though it has been submerged for so long. As far as my knowledge goes they did a lot of this back in the day, which is quite a shame for the residents at the time. Can you imagine the sort of fuss that would be kicked up these days if the council came along and tried to move people along just to make a reservoir!


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## boxfrenzy

Urban Mole said:


> Is this the same place, or another --->http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/weirdworld/Revealed--secret-of-Leeds39.3965476.jp



No mate, this is Eastmoor, as featured on this very forum!

Thanks for your comments y'all.


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