Walkers intrigued by ‘mystery object’ as hot weather sees reservoir water levels drop

The Wayoh Reservoir, found just outside Edgworth and south of Darwen, is popular with ramblers, joggers and dog walkers as well as families looking for weekend days out.

But the this week’s warm weather coupled with a lack of rainfall over the last month has seen the water levels fall to just over 60 per cent of average.

A visitor from Bolton said: “It doesn’t seem to have rained in days and on looking at rainfall statistics on the environment agency website for April it looks like we’ve only had 37 per cent of our normal rainfall

“And the water levels at the reservoir are lower than we’d normally expect at this time of year.”

The reservoir is popular with dog walkers and joggers (Image: Phil Taylor) “I’ve seen the Wayoh Reservoir far more dry but it’s unusual this early in the year.”

The falling water levels also exposed what the visitor described as a “mystery object”, shaped like a cylinder found in the mud.

Water levels are lower than usual at this time of year (Image: Phil Taylor) The object lies beneath a causeway separating the upper and lower halves of the reservoir. 

An eyewitness, familiar with the reservoir said that it had become visible in the mud on Thursday evening, possibly having been thrown down the banking.

A mystery object was exposed (Image: Phil Taylor) He joked that it could have been an unexploded bomb or even something out of this world given 1960s science fiction thriller Quatermass and the Pit was partly filmed on nearby Hob Lane.

But the Bolton visitor said that on looking closer a much more straightforward explanation seemed to present itself.

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He said: “Somebody reckons it’s a bollard and when you look at it you can see the red bits.”

The Wayoh Reservoir is part of the Pennine Sources which according to United Utilities has a current water stock of 63.3 per cent as of Saturday morning.

This is a drop of 3.3 per cent compared to last week.

The water stock of 63.3 per cent is a significant drop compared to an average yearly stock of 86.3 per cent and a stock of 88.1 per cent at this time last year. 

Source – INDIA TV