page_title: Dovestone Reservoir
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Dovestone Reservoir / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Ashworth Cross, above the 'Ashway Gap', overlooking Dovestone reservoir is a memorial to James Platt, the MP for Oldham, who "was killed there by an accidental discharge of his own gun" in 1857.
context_page_description: Dovestone Reservoir lies at the convergence of the valleys of the Greenfield and Chew Brooks above the village of Greenfield, on Saddleworth Moor in Greater Manchester, England. The reservoir is on the western edge of the Peak District National Park. It supplies drinking water to the surrounding area and is a tourist attraction, providing several walks amongst picturesque landscapes.
context_section_description: John Platt of Oldham built a Neo-Gothic mansion at Ashway Gap on the south side of the valley in 1850. It was used as a shooting lodge but after his brother James's death in a shooting accident on the moor above it, the house was left empty. The house was later acquired by the Ashton-under-Lyne, Stalybridge and Dukinfield Waterworks Joint Committee. Boundary stones demarcating the extent of the estate are located at intervals along the footpaths along the south side of the reservoir. During World War I the waterworks board offered the house for use as a hospital. It was demolished in 1981.
  On the northern end of Dove Stone Moss, above the Ashway Gap, the Ashway Stone is a memorial to James Platt, MP for Oldham, who was killed by an accidental discharge of the gun of Josiah Radcliffe, the Mayor of Oldham.
  The reservoir scheme in the Greenfield Valley and Chew Valley by the Ashton-Under-Lyne, Stalybridge and Dukinfield Waterworks Joint Committee commenced in 1870. The scheme was completed with Dovestone Reservoir in 1968 to collect water from the surrounding moorland. The main contractor was A.E. Farr (Civil Engineers) of Westbury, Wiltshire. Its construction was opposed by local mill owners, who claimed that damming the river would cut off their water supply. As a result, a tunnel was built higher up in the hillside to bypass the reservoir.
  During a visit in 1981 to attend the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga visited Dovestone Reservoir. To commemorate the visit, a carved stone has been set into the dam wall of the Yeoman Hey Reservoir.
  In December 2015, a man who travelled from London to Manchester and walked to a location close to the reservoir, died on the Chew Track. The unknown individual was initially nicknamed "Neil Dovestones" by pathologists, until he was identified as David Lytton in January 2017.
caption: The Ashworth Cross memorial to James Platt MP 1857
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