Worthington Lakes

 Whilst we were away on holiday, our friend Keith kindly looked after our Cat, Dog and House for us. When we got back I took a few days to decompress and stop swaying until I was ready to walk on dry land properly before I was able to go for our customary photo walk before Keith had to go home. Keith was checking out local places on t' interweb when he came across Worthington Lakes, a series of reservoirs a short drive from my home. I hadn't been there before so we got our cameras ready and toddled off to see what the afternoon would bring us.

I loaded my Nikon F801s with the last roll of Kentmere 400 that I had taken on holiday and didn't quite get around to using. My lens was my AF Nikkor 35-70mm and I fitted a yellow filter as the clouds were showing a few blue holes that might give my photos a little more drama. Keith had his trusted Contax 139 loaded with Agfaphoto APX 400 and was using the Tamron Adaptall 2 28-70mm lens I had gifted him a couple of years ago.

It didn't take long to get to our destination and we soon had Keith's chariot, Nedward unloaded from his car and we headed to our first obstacle, a gate unsuitable for chariots to pass through. No worries, there's a path to one side that goes around it and we were soon on the shore of the first of the reservoirs.

Worthington Lakes is a series of three reservoirs built in the 1860's to provide the rapidly growing town of Wigan with clean water. The industrial revolution was in full flow at this time and people were moving into the town to work in one of the many coal mines and cotton mills that had sprung up in and around Wigan. Water being in short supply was given priority and soon a site was identified that had good inflow of water and work commenced.

The River Douglas, which was getting heavily polluted at the time, was diverted through a tunnel and the water for the reservoirs was sourced from the west slopes of the Douglas Valley. A water treatment works was added and Worthington, Arley and Adlington reservoirs have been supplying Wigan with water for over 150 years.

The path around the southern Worthington reservoir was our first route and we took a slow wander along it. It was just wide enough for Nedward squeeze along. We photographed things of interest along the way including some gnarly trees that got Keith's pareidolia all excited. Burls on trees may be the single most source of inspiration for Tolkein when he introduced us all to The Ents, a sentient species of Tree in The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit fantasy novels.

By the time we had got half way around Worthington Lake itself, we were both feeling a little tired and we decided to leave the other lakes for another day. It was a wise decision really as soon after we got back to the car and set off home it absolutely persisted down! Timing..... Keith had to go back home the next day and I left my developing for another day, happy that I had shot one roll and we both avoided a soaking.

I developed my roll of Kentmere 400 in Bellini Euro HC 1+31 dilution B for 6 minutes at 22 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized led light pad. I processed the RAW files with Afinity Photo 2.

First impressions of my photos are they were well exposed and the yellow filter did the trick for the cloud cover. You can also see the level of water in the reservoirs is quite low thanks to the glorious summer we have enjoyed here in 2025. Drought was declared here in the North West of England and for the most part, people have been careful with their water consumption.

Here's a few favourites from our quick afternoon photowalk around Worthington Lakes. It's a nice place for a walk and a bit of fresh air with the added bonus of being not that far out of town and easy to get to. There's a link below. I have placed these photos and more in an album on Flickr for you to visit via the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Worthington Lakes - About 
Worthington Lakes - Nikon F801S - Kentmere 400