Lake Accrington

[Pudwoppa]

It seems that several thousand years ago after the glaciers from the ice age melted, our little valley was entirely underwater. We had a post-glacial lake in?/on?/above? our lovely town and it carries the name Accrington.

I couldn't find any reference this on a site search and thought it was interesting enough to post. This is patched together from various sources (Cited where possible). Not sure if it belongs here - it's more ancient geology than history, but here goes:

1 "Lake Accrington was formed on the west side of the Pennines from the meltwaters of the retreating Irish Sea ice."

2 "Some 10,000 years ago, as the Irish Sea ice retreated westwards, the meltwaters became trapped against the Pennine Hills to the east. They pooled up in this basin to form Lake Accrington.

As the lake filled up, it finally reached a col through the hills and began to overflow. The col was deepened by corrasion to form the Cliviger Gorge. This allowed the waters to join the Calder Valley, cutting a deep notch and flowing eastwards on the other side of the Pennines.

Hence the modern Calder starts on the west side of the Pennines but flows through them to the east, joining the Ouse catchment and passing on to the North Sea via the Humber Estuary."

Both from this Source


3 "The formation of Lake Accrington in the basin of the Lancashire Calder was first described by Dr. A. Jowett (1914, p. 219). This event was due to the seperation of the Ribblesdale and North Western ice-sheets in Calderdale."

4 "...the initial level of Lake Accrington was about 725 feet O.D..."

Both from a paper read to Manchester Geological Association by vernon Dean July 19th, 1958.


The lake is likely responsible for our Brick heritage:

5 "Brickworks were widespread thoughout the Calder Valley on account of the high quality of the clay to be found in the area which was the result of sediment left behind after the ice age by 'Lake Accrington'."
Source

I can't find anything to say how big the lake was, but it seems to have been centred over Accrington and affected much of the hyndburn area/valley, as well as Pleasington Source. There are lots articles regarding the outlet channels etc, but exact details of the lake itself seem to be quite sketchy. Any more info would be greatly appreciated.

[steve2qec]

Nice thread. Unfortunately there's nothing I can add to it but I'll be keeping an eye on future posts.

[Mick]

Sorry for the lack of info but accyweb was not around till a few years later

[Bob Dobson]

There is a Lancashsire Calder and a Yorkshire one. They both rise in Cliviger parish. To complicate further, there is another River Calder which rises North of the village of Calder Vale, South East of Lancaster. In fact, there are several Calders throught the UK.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by mick

Sorry for the lack of info but accyweb was not around till a few years later

If they had have been the mods would have had clubs