The reservoir construction is unique as it is vaulted brickwork and is the only one of its kind in the Chorley District area and certainly the oldest remaining service reservoir in Chorley .
Across from the brick reservoir, to the west, is the one currently used which is much larger and built about 1940, since then the brick reservoir was kept as an emergency backup and so has been redundant since then.
The way the scheme worked when it was built in 1884, was the pumping station used a steam pump to lift the water from a large diameter well approximately 25 meters deep and pumped it into the reservoir where it then fed via gravity through a cast iron water pipe to feed drinking water to Leyland.
Subsequently a much deeper borehole was sunk below the bottom of the well and a submersible electric pump used to extract the water. The steam pump then became redundant. When the ‘new’ reservoir was built a new pipe line was laid from Wheelton where a connection was taken from the Thirlmere aqueduct. The borehole was still used occasionally as an emergency backup and to prevent the brickwork from drying out.
