Manchester v. Thirlmere and the Construction of the Victorian Environment

The proposed conversion of Thirlmere, in the Lake District, into a reservoir for the city of Manchester sparked a conflict that has served as a prototype for subsequent environmental confrontations.  The debate had a heavy symbolic charge: the icon of progress confronted the icon of unspoiled countryside. During construction, and even after the reservoir opened in 1894, critics attempted a rearguard defense of what they regarded as the pristine Lake District landscape.  The appeal of the pristine was the most compelling element of anti-reservoir arguments, but the exigencies of municipal progress proved still more powerful.