Harry Nuttall column: IT’S nearly 25 years since plans to redevelop Jack’s Key Lodge were first revealed.

Since then other ambitious plans have come and gone while the reservoir has been drained and the whole area has steadily become a vast wasteland of scrub and marsh.

Who owns the 18-acre lodge area now? I’m not sure.

Reed Decorative Products owned it till 1982 when they appear to have sold it to a local property group called Glenranco and then local builder Rob Hollingworth, head of Paul Homes, moved in and then another Hollingworth company called Jacks Key Ltd appeared on the scene in 2003.

This company was voluntarily wound-up a year or so ago.

The Environment Agency didn’t know when I spoke to them a few weeks ago while the Land Registry still have Jacks Key Ltd listed as owners of the land.

The only thing I do know is that about nine acres bordering the basin on the Cranberry side is still owned by the council.

I’m told there is just a chance the Environment Agency and the council could get together to consider some sort of conservation area.

Rabbits and foxes have returned and deer wander over from Entwistle.

There are woodpecker and lapwing and I’ve seen some lovely wild orchids.

Years ago there were snipe, black-headed gull and mallard.

Nearly 20 years ago Hollingworth believed he had come to an agreement with the council to buy some 15 acres to the west of the lodge up to Bolton Road. He had big plans for the area.

But tenders were invited and Walter Lawrence put in a bigger bid and snatched the land from under his nose.

By the mid 90s they had built the extensive and impressive Jack’s Key development, largely isolating the lodge area.

Rob came up with more leisure plans for the basin.

But planning permission lapsed nine years ago.

He blamed red tape and prevarication; the council blamed him for a lack of action.

Since then – nothing. But just imagine a smaller lake, not too deep, with access through Grainings Wood.

It would make a fine nature reserve and beauty spot.

It was all so different in the first half of last century when the lodge was very popular, especially at weekends.

There was boating and fishing and swimming and the sandy north west corner was a haven for youngsters.

The reservoir was built in the early years of the 19th century to service the Spring Vale bleaching factory of Richard Hilton and in 1847 the bank was raised to increase its capacity.

Fears over the strength of this bank led to the lodge being drained.

Streams from Cranberry Moss and Bull Hill still trickle into it and run away through mud and marsh down an old shaft and into the Clough.

It is, of course, the source of the River Darwen which probably deserves better.