HOW many people realise that a huge pipeline from Huncoat and under Rawtenstall, carries half half of Manchester’s drinking water?

Construction of the tunnel, which forms part of the Haweswater aqueduct, began in 1949 and lasted for five years.

The 11.7 mile system runs from Huncoat, under the Hambledon and Cribden Hills and then beneath the Irwell to Bury.

More than 700 men were employed at the peak of construction and living accommodation was provided in a prefabricated camp at Woodtop.

Shafts were sunk at Rising Bridge, Bryabella and Shuttleworth to give access to the working faces, additional to others at Huncoat and Townsend Fold.

Rising Bridge shaft was 330 ft deep, while the 134ft deep Bryabella shaft was sited near to what became the Haslingden Road entrance to All Saints School.

They were all excavated by hand, using compressed air tools and explosives, before tunnel driving began from eight working faces, in a compressed air working system.

The men employed here were medically checked by fitness to work by Dr Lamberty of Crawshawbooth.

On one occasion a miner suffered from the ‘bends’, passing through the air-lock doors too quickly and the doctor was called to slowly return him to normal atmospheric pressure.

Finally the tunnel was given a smooth concrete lining. With a 8ft 6in diameter, it’s big enought to drive a car through from Huncoat to Bury.

It was designed to convey 100 million gallons of water each day to Manchester at a speed of around 2 mph and has continued to do so since 1954.

Although 250 tons of gelignite and 320,000 electric detonators were used, accidents were related to haulage and roof falls.

Several of the 4,500 men who passed through the contractor’s books in the five years of work, married and settled in Rossendale.

The tunnel cost £3million in 1954 — probably about £100million in today’s value.

Jim Ashton, of Huncoat, was in his 20s when the aqueduct was built and he remembers the work well: “I remember watching men bury sections of the pipe line alongside Bolton Avenue, but today there is very little evidence of it.

“I know it runs below several acres of farmland that once belonged to the bygone Lower Brown Birks dairy farm.”