 It was constructed in the 1850s by Thomas Hawksley for Liverpool Corporation Waterworks, and together with Rake Brook, was designed to hold compensation water to maintain flows in the rivers, whereas the reservoirs at Lower Rivington, Upper Rivington and Anglezarke held water for the public water supply.Water from the two compensation reservoirs was fed into Anglezarke reservoir by a channel called The Goit.An Act of Parliament to authorise its construction was obtained in 1847, and Hawksley designed an earth dam which was tall at its highest point and long.