 It was constructed in the 1850s by Thomas Hawksley for Liverpool Corporation Waterworks, and 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 reservoir was fed into Anglezarke reservoir by a channel called The Goit.Construction of the reservoir was authorised by an Act of Parliament obtained in 1847, and the engineer Thomas Hawksley designed an earth dam which was tall at its highest point and long.