Lake District - Thirlmere, Subject of Controversy

This is a view of Thirlmere, a reservoir which generated significant controversy in the latter nineteenth century. 

Two lakes previously existed at this site, but the city of Manchester needed more water for its industrial operations.  Petitioning Parliament to allow the area to be changed, so the city and businesses could reroute (and use) the water, proponents of the plan - known now as the Thirlmere scheme - ultimately prevailed.

One newspaper editor, expressing an opinion against creating the reservoir, wrote:

"The lake country belongs in a sense, and that the widest and best sense, not to a few owners of mountain pasture but to the people of England."

Credits

Photo by Ann Bowker, online at Mad About Mountains.

Quoted reference from Thirlmere Defence Association, 1877, Extracts from the Leading Journals on the Manchester Water Scheme (J. Garnett, Windermere, UK, 1878), p. 15.