# Mardale > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Mardale > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Mardale.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardale > Source revision: 1347921625 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) English glacial valley in the Lake District For the [Romanian](/source/Romania) village, see [Vulpeni](/source/Vulpeni). [54°30′36″N 2°48′36″W / 54.510°N 2.810°W / 54.510; -2.810](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Mardale¶ms=54.51_N_2.81_W_region:GB_scale:5000) **Mardale** [/mɑːrdeɪl/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English) is a [glacial valley](/source/Glacial_valley) in the [Lake District](/source/Lake_District), in northern [England](/source/England). The valley used to have a hamlet at its head, called Mardale Green, but this village was submerged in the late 1930s when the water level of the valley's lake, Haweswater, was raised to form [Haweswater Reservoir](/source/Haweswater_Reservoir) by [Manchester Corporation](/source/Manchester_City_Council).[1][2] ## Demolition Mardale Most of the village's buildings were blown up by the [Royal Engineers](/source/Royal_Engineers), who used them for demolition practice. The exception was the small church, which could accommodate only 75 people, and had an all-ticket congregation for its last service. It was then dismantled in April 1937, stone by stone, and the stones and windows were re-used to build the water take-off tower which is situated along the Western shore of the reservoir.[3] Some 97 sets of remains were disinterred from the churchyard and transferred to [Shap](/source/Shap).[3] The ruins of the [abandoned village](/source/Abandoned_village) occasionally reappear when the water level in the reservoir is low.[1][2][3] [Alfred Wainwright](/source/Alfred_Wainwright) protested bitterly about the loss of Mardale in his series of pictorial guides to the [Lakeland](/source/Lake_District) fells, having first visited it in 1930,[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] and still wrote of the “rape of Mardale” in his very last book.[4] Others, however, [*[who?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions)*] praised the creation of a new and impressive mass of water, especially as viewed from the fells.[5] ## Dam and fell access Mardale Despite his protests, Wainwright was impressed by the dimensions of the Mardale dam – 90 feet (27 m) in height; 1,550 ft (470 m) in length – which he noted as the earliest hollow [buttress dam](/source/Buttress_dam) in the world.[6] In response to the submerging of the village, Manchester Corporation provided a new access road that runs for four miles (6 km) along the south-eastern side of the reservoir to a car park at Gatescarth. From here ascents of the peaks surrounding the head of the valley, such as [Harter Fell](/source/Harter_Fell_(Mardale)), [High Street](/source/High_Street_(Lake_District)) and [Kidsty Pike](/source/Kidsty_Pike) may be made.[7] ## Historical and literary associations - A refugee from [King John](/source/John%2C_King_of_England), Sir Hugh Hulme, settled in the valley in the early 13th C., and was popularly known as the King of Mardale.[8] - [Letitia Elizabeth Landon](/source/Letitia_Elizabeth_Landon) gives an emotional response to the remote grandeur of *Mardale Head* in her poetical illustration of that name, to an engraving of a painting by [Thomas Allom](/source/Thomas_Allom) in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835.[9] English [Wikisource](/source/Wikisource) has original text related to this article: **[Mardale Head by Thomas Allom, with a poetical illustration by L. E. L.](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/en:Letitia_Elizabeth_Landon_(L._E._L.)_in_Fisher%27s_Drawing_Room_Scrap_Book,_1835/Mardale_Head)** - Mardale featured as “Marrisdale” in [Mrs Humphry Ward](/source/Mrs_Humphry_Ward)’s Victorian novel *[Robert Elsmere](/source/Robert_Elsmere)*; and was also described by her contemporary as a novelist, [Eliza Lynn Linton](/source/Eliza_Lynn_Linton): “seen in the calm of evening, with every mountain form repeated with tenfold force of line and colour in the black lake...it is something well worth travelling far to see”.[10] - The flooding of Mardale is the subject of [Sarah Hall](/source/Sarah_Hall_(writer))'s 2002 historical novel *Haweswater* (Faber, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0571209309](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0571209309)). Hall's novel won the [Commonwealth Writers First Book Award](/source/Commonwealth_Foundation_prizes#Commonwealth_Writers'_Prize). ## See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Mardale](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mardale). - [Capel Celyn](/source/Capel_Celyn) (village 'drowned' to create a reservoir) - [Derwent, Derbyshire](/source/Derwent%2C_Derbyshire) - [Riggindale](/source/Rough_Crag_(Riggindale)) - [Chew Valley Lake](/source/Chew_Valley_Lake) (where the village of Moreton lies underwater) - [West End, Yorkshire](/source/West_End%2C_Yorkshire) (village 'drowned' to create a reservoir) ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-bbcnov03_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-bbcnov03_1-1) [The "lost village" of Mardale](https://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/features/photos/2003/mardale/mardale.shtml), BBC, November 2003. Retrieved 2013-01-01. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-bbc11nov03_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-bbc11nov03_2-1) [Emergency water measures planned](https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cumbria/3259833.stm), BBC news website, 2003-11-11. Retrieved 2013-01-01. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-bbc15jul10_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-bbc15jul10_3-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-bbc15jul10_3-2) [The "lost village" of Mardale](https://news.bbc.co.uk/local/cumbria/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8780000/8780070.stm), BBC news website. 2010-07-15. Retrieved 2013-01-01. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** A Wainwright, *Wainwright in the Valleys of Lakeland* (London 1996) pg. 25 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** B Conduit, *Lake District Walks* (Norwich 1991) p. 64 1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** A Wainwright, *Wainwright in the Valleys of Lakeland* (London 1996) p. 29 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** A Wainwright, *Wainwright in the Valleys of Lakeland* (London 1996) p. 27 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** [Old Cumbria Gazette](http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/webmap/thelakes/html/lgaz/lk13356.htm) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1834). "picture and poetical illustration". [*Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835*](https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Bzk_AAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA64). Fisher, Son & Co. p. 52. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** G Lindop, *A Literary Guide to the Lake District* (London 1993) p. 33 ## External links - [Cumbria County History Trust: Shap](http://www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk/township/shap) (nb: provisional research only – see Talk page) This Westmorland and Furness location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. - [v](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:WestmorlandFurness-geo-stub) - [t](/source/Template_talk%3AWestmorlandFurness-geo-stub) - [e](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:WestmorlandFurness-geo-stub) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Mardale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardale) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardale?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.