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Article	Author
Revidge Tank	Barbara Riding
"In those days people, simpler then than now, made family excursions to the top of the Tank, an unlovely reservoir, to catch a glimpse of the sea". - Dorothy Whipple "The other Day". 1936  The unlovely reservoir on Revidge, now 103 years old has reached the end of its days. North West Water has signed it’s death warrant and it is due to be demolished. On Wednesday 7th July 1875 a letter appeared in the Blackburn Standard under the heading of Water Wanted. The Water Tower and Observatory predicted in the letter did not materialise at that time. Instead, in 1879 a covered reservoir was constructed at the top of Corporation Park holding 500,000 gallons of water. This however was not adequate for the number of houses being erected on Revidge, as J.G. Shaw pointed out in "Blackburn Waterworks" in 1891. "The level of the Reservoir is 722 feet but as the highest point of Revidge is 718 feet the taps in the Corporation Park Hotel and the little toffy shops at the top of the Park have to be placed near the floor of the kitchen or in the cellars – and the flow of water is very slow indeed". In May 1897 it was reported in the Council Minutes that messrs. James Varley and Sons were willing to sell a piece of land at Revidge for the construction of an iron tank capable of holding 50,000 gallons of water for £50. In July 1897 the tender of Ashton Frost and Co, Ltd for supplying and erecting the iron tank reservoir was accepted.In August the Water Engineer was instructed to have the supports of the proposed iron tank strengthened with a view to the public being admitted to the roof, and in September Mr. Stead’s tender for erecting an iron staircase and railings on the water tank at Revidge was accepted. It is strange to think that what was written in the original letter to the Blackburn Standard in 1875 partly came true. we could not see people emerging from their bathing machines at Blackpool, but we could see the Tower. In 1940 the children in Standard IV at St.Silas’s School were taken by their teacher Mr Brown to the top of the Park to visit the Tank. What a disappointment ! Instead of an armoured vehicle with guns, which we’d seen on the newsreels at the cinema, into which we might have been allowed to climb, it was just an enormous metal platform. The Tank ceased to be a reservoir in 1978 and so for over 20 years it has just stood empty and useless as far as its original purpose was concerned. It was covered with graffiti and the iron staircase was taken down to prevent anyone climbing onto it in its unsafe condition. Two years ago negotiations began between North West Water, the Civic Society, English Heritage and Blackburn with Darwen Council to try and save the Tank for posterity, but to no avail. The cost of restoration would be too exorbitant in the present climate !
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