An entire village was wiped from the map to make way for development - but then left as wasteland for years. The story of Stormy Corner, a little-known hamlet nine miles west of Wigan, is a sad chapter from the post-war 'New Town' era, in which huge new estates were built to house families from the crowded inner cities.

click for big image

In 1961, the West Lancashire mining village of Skelmersdale was designated as an 'overspill' community for people from Liverpool. The project would spell the end of Stormy Corner, a rural hamlet on its outskirts which dated back to the 19th century, but is remembered by few today.

In its heyday, its cottages were served by shops including Fosters, which sold sweets, Dugdale's grocers, and Drapers, the local Co-op. There was a little school which was disused by the 1950s, two pubs, the Beehive and the Seven Stars, and as typical to an area of West Lancs influenced by the migration of miners from Wales, a Methodist church.

Now all of it is gone, with the Stanley Industrial Estate on the site where the village once stood. The demolition began in 1967, the land earmarked for development as this rural area was transformed by the Skelmersdale New Town project. Writing for the Ormskirk Advertiser in 1969, journalist Clifford Birchall depicted its desolation after the bulldozers first moved in.

He said: "It is easy to tell which houses are occupied in Stormy Corner. Lace curtains hanging at the window distinguish the houses from those which have suffered in the death throes of what may be Skelmersdale's oldest community.

"Stormy Corner today lies executed, its only crime being that it was too old to keep up with the new town of Skelmersdale. A handful of people live there now, the memories of a crowded mining village all the more real as they are recollected in 20th-century silence."

Parkgate was the chief port and the principal terminal for the packet ships travelling back and forth to Dublin. But they also stopped at Dawpool, carrying passengers, newspapers and thousands of pounds worth of cargo decades ago. However, the trade went into decline as the Dee estuary became impassable for shipping and as Liverpool rose to prominence. Today the name of Dawpool is still retained in a number of schools in the Thurstaston area and it also gave its name to Dawpool House, the former residence of the White Star Line shipping owner, Thomas Henry Ismay. The country house itself was demolished in 1927.

Magazine Village in Wallasey gets its name from the time when it was used to store gunpowder from the sailing ships entering the Mersey for their stay in the Port of Liverpool. The ships were required to unload the powder and have it kept at the Magazines until it was time to sail again.

The explosive material was placed in detached chambers and covered with earth, with a strong wall built to enclose the whole area. But despite these measures, a massive explosion took place in January 1864, when the ship the Lottie Sleigh laden with 11 tons of gunpowder blew up. miraculously there were no deaths, but the explosion caused extensive damage and even shattered windows across Liverpool. As the area became more built-up during the 19th century, concern over the presence of large quantities of gunpowder near residential areas increased, and the store was transferred to floating hulks anchored lower down the river.

The only reminder of the village now is the name of the local pub, It was built in 1759 for the sailors who had time to spare while they waited for powder to be loaded on to their boats, and is still going strong today.

Llanwddyn was once a small village at the head of Vyrnwy Valley in Powys, Wales. But by 1880, the valley had been identified as a suitable site for the reservoir.

Despite opposition from residents of the village, who were not consulted about the proposals, an act was passed and work began the following year to build a dam across the valley. The work took around seven years to complete and in 1888 the old village was demolished and the area flooded.

A church, two chapels, three inns, 10 farmhouses and 37 other houses were lost under the rising waters. A new village was built by the Liverpool Corporation around two miles further down the valley, to house the original residents.

Today the reservoir, called Lake Vyrnwy, is a popular destination for tourists. During a drought season the remains and foundations of the lost village can still be seen.

Llanwddyn is not the only welsh village that was submerged to create a reservoir to provide a water supply for Liverpool and Merseyside. Perhaps the most well known is the small welsh village of Capel Celyn in Bala, which was flooded in 1965.

Like the lost village of Llanwddyn, any evidence of Capel Celyn's existence can only been seen during heatwave conditions when the reservoir dries out. But the history of this long lost village involves a community uprooted and mass protest.

When the Tryweryn Valley, where the village was located, was flooded, the village and its buildings, including the post office, the school, and a chapel with cemetery, were all lost. A further 12 houses and farms were submerged, and 48 people of the 67 who lived in the valley lost their homes.

Capel Celyn, a village home to 67 people and one of the last Welsh-only speaking communities, stood in the Trweryn Valley which became the proposed site for the new reservoir. Rather than applying to local planning committees to build the reservoir, Liverpool City Council sponsored a bill in Parliament, meaning Welsh political opposition couldn't stop approval of the scheme, the ECHO previously reported.

In 1957, a bill for the construction of the reservoir passed through the Houses of Parliament and was approved despite 35 of the 36 Welsh MPs voting against it. The end result was 800 acres and an entire village being flooded - and it triggered fierce opposition and a campaign of Welsh nationalist civil disobedience.

Families who had relatives buried in the village cemetery were given the option of moving the deceased to another location. The valley was eventually flooded in 1965 - and any evidence of its existence can only been seen during heatwave conditions when the reservoir dries out.

On October 19, 2005 Liverpool Council issued a formal apology for the flooding. While some in the neighbouring town of Bala welcomed the move, others dismissed it as a "useless political gesture" that came far too late.

After the flooding of the village the slogan 'cofiwch Dryweryn', which means 'remember Tryweryn', emerged as a prominent slogan for Welsh nationalism as the event was used by some nationalists to call for independence.

When the conditions are right, the remains of a village reappears. During particular hot spells, the 'drowned' village of Mardale Green surfaces from its watery grave like 'Atlantis,' the MEN previously reported.

In the 1930s, the picturesque Cumbrian villages of Mardale Green and Measand were submerged to create what's now known as the Haweswater reservoir. It was one of the largest reservoirs in England, meant to supplement the water from Thirlmere reservoir with the intention of supplying Manchester with drinking water for a hundred years.

The controversial construction of the Haweswater dam in the Lake District started in 1929 after Parliament passed an Act giving Manchester Corporation permission to build the reservoir to supply water for the urban conurbations of northwest England. At the time, there was a public outcry about the decision as the planned site of the reservoir was populated by the farming villages of Measand and Mardale Green.

click for larger pic

homes, as well as 97 bodies removed and re-buried in a graveyard in the nearby village of Shap. The farms and houses of the villages of Mardale and Measand, and the well-loved Dun Bull Inn apparently famous for its hot buttered rum, was a great loss to the wider community. It was popular for miles around with farming families and hunting folk who gathered there for fairs, feasts, dances and sales throughout the year were demolished and submerged by the reservoir in the 1930s, when a prolonged period of hot weather occurs the water level can sink to such an extent that it's possible to walk among its ghostly remains. During times of drought the remnants of Mardale Green, including dry stone walls and an old bridge, can become visible. The last time the village showed itself was in July 2022, when a drought hit and water levels plunged.

Ladybower Reservoir is a well-known tourist spot to those familiar with the Peak District. The picturesque man-made lake was built in the Upper Derwent Valley between 1935 and 1943 - the largest in the UK at the time. But the building of the reservoir came at a great cost - the bustling villages of Ashopton and neighbouring Derwent. Both villages which nestled high in the Peak District were lost forever

Bodies were exhumed from graveyards, a local church held its final service. The buildings that once made up these thriving villages were reduced to nothing but rubble.

As the dam filled, the crumbling ruins disappeared beneath millions of gallons of water, never to see the light of day again. All that remained was an untouched spire from the church of St John and St James, kept as a memorial for Derwent villagers.

For over a year it poked out of the water, posing as a haunting reminder of what once was. But when that too was demolished and vanished beneath the sheet of blue, no memory was left of the lost villages.

That was until heatwaves hit the country in 1976, 1989, 1995, 2003 and 2018. Low water levels meant the villages emerged in a rare occurrence, offering visitors an eerie glimpse into its past.

During dry spells, a walk around the village community can still find signs of life beneath the water, including cottage doorways, walls, hearths, pump houses and bricks.

click for clearer map

click for large pic

click for very large pic

click for large pic