Submerged English Village Remembered After it was Sunk in a Reservoir Some Sixty Years Ago

Former inhabitants remember the submerged English village of Greenbooth located in Greater Manchester. Locals were evacuated as the historic village was part of the area flooded to build a reservoir, but memories remain with children who are now adults.

It was sixty years back when the village sank underwater, but many still have vivid memories of the place. One of them is Terry Tomlinson, 87, who, like many others, has shared what they remember of their lost village.

Goodbye Greenbooth

In the 1960s, there were four reservoirs created in the Naden Valley. One of them was Norden in Greenbooth, where Tomlinson lived his youth, reported the Mirror UK.

Presently, the reservoir is an essential part of the countryside of Heywood that serves as a park, where people take their pets for walks, hiking, and nature scenes that are perfect for outdoorsy people.

The Manchester Evening News said that during the middle 50s, both Heywood and Middleton Water Board have plans to make reservoirs in Naden Valley.

One of the reasons Greenbooth was chosen is that fewer people left there, according to planners. It was an old town that functioned around a local mill, with no electricity installed even in the 50s.

Tomlinson's family had owned the Higher Red Lumb Farm, a little up valley, from the now sunken town. The farm served milk to local residents in simpler times.

His elder brother Peter, 90, is a milkman who was still delivering to Norden until two years ago before he retired. Terry added that they lived their childhood years in Norden; half of the people he knew came from the lost village.

He remembered filling the jugs with milk and covering it with a plate for the owner. Although some have left, those who remain never wanted to leave the village, but they had to sell. This submerged English village is remembered by many of the former residents.

Some people from there, like Tomlinson, never wanted to farm, just like their ancestors. He worked in the construction for McAlpine, the firm that made the dams. Another resident Seamus O'Donnel, 81, was another of the local laborers who built the dam.

Terry now lives in County Mayo, west of Ireland. He added that the dam-building began in 1957, started work in 1959, and paid 20p in today's money per hour.After the long work hours, the workmen would frequent the White Lion pub on Edenfield Road.

Seamus recalled the 'big house' of James Butterworth, which was taken down before the flooding of Greenbooth. He left before the dam was finished and went back home.

Few residents are left from the drowned village of Norden

One of these is an anonymous woman whose father was a milkman there, saying it was an old village with no electricity in their houses and had toilets built outside. She recalled that there was no need to lock doors.

Folks were too familiar with each other to enter homes to fill the milk urns freely, and it was a close-knit community. She added it would have been good to have it preserved as a museum, but it was not to happen.

It was called Green Booth after James Butterworth built a weaving mill during the 1840s. It produced woolen flannel for clothing makers in northern England. During its time, it was modern for the age, and later it became Greenbooth, cited Newstral.

The dam is 40 meters tall and 300 meters long, which was done by 1963, and flooded the historic town in August of 1965.

The Naden Valley contained three reservoirs (Naden Lower, Naden Middle, and Naden Higher) that dated back to the 19th century. The Greenbooth is the fourth reservoir that would complete the series. The abandoned English village may be submerged under but will always be remembered from above the dam.