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Keppelcove Tarn, Patterdale
Keppelcove Tarn
locality:-   Keppel Cove
civil parish:-   Patterdale (formerly Westmorland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   tarn (gone) 
locality type:-   flood
coordinates:-   NY34511650 (etc) 
1Km square:-   NY3416
10Km square:-   NY31
altitude:-   1805 feet
altitude:-   550m

photograph
CCD20.jpg (taken 18.11.2014)  
photograph
BUV14.jpg  The failed earth barrier; newer concrete dam, breached 1931; and the drained tarn above.
(taken 20.6.2011)  
evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Wmd 12 9) 
placename:-  Keppelcove Tarn
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
evidence:-   old map:- Donald 1774 (Cmd) 
source data:-   Map, hand coloured engraving, 3x2 sheets, The County of Cumberland, scale about 1 inch to 1 mile, by Thomas Donald, engraved and published by Joseph Hodskinson, 29 Arundel Street, Strand, London, 1774.
image
D4NY31NW.jpg
lake 
item:-  Carlisle Library : Map 2
Image © Carlisle Library
evidence:-   old map:- Otley 1818
source data:-   Map, uncoloured engraving, The District of the Lakes, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Lancashire, scale about 4 miles to 1 inch, by Jonathan Otley, 1818, engraved by J and G Menzies, Edinburgh, Scotland, published by Jonathan Otley, Keswick, Cumberland, et al, 1833.
image
OT02NY31.jpg
item:-  JandMN : 48.1
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   descriptive text:- Otley 1823 (5th edn 1834) 
placename:-  Keppel Cove Tarn
source data:-   Guide book, A Concise Description of the English Lakes, the mountains in their vicinity, and the roads by which they may be visited, with remarks on the mineralogy and geology of the district, by Jonathan Otley, published by the author, Keswick, Cumberland now Cumbria, by J Richardson, London, and by Arthur Foster, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, 1823; published 1823-49, latterly as the Descriptive Guide to the English Lakes.
image OT01P035, button  goto source
Page 35:-  "... Keppel Cove Tarn is posited in a singular manner, not in the bottom of the glen, but, in a kind of recess formed on one side; it is separated from Red Tarn by a narrow mountain ridge, called Swirrel Edge, which branches off from Helvellyn and is terminated by a peak called Catsty Cam, modernized into Catchedecam; below which the two streams unite to form the brook of Glenridding. All these tarns afford good diversion for the angler; Keppel Cove produces a bright well shapen trout ..."
evidence:-   old map:- Garnett 1850s-60s H
placename:-  Keppel Cove Tarn
source data:-   Map of the English Lakes, in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire, scale about 3.5 miles to 1 inch, published by John Garnett, Windermere, Westmorland, 1850s-60s.
image
GAR2NY31.jpg
"Keppel Cove Tarn"
outline with shore form lines, lake or tarn 
item:-  JandMN : 82.1
Image © see bottom of page
notes:-  
 Notes from a contemporary report in a Mining journal.
Keppelcove Tarn covered about 7 acres, and was up to 30 feet deep; it was a tarn in a cirque 1750 feet above sea level. The glacial moraine holding back the water was rocks and boulders in gravel and clay. This had a gentle slope, and no sign of seepage in living memory. The natural overflow at one side of the dam had been paved, and a sluice erected. The outfall was not above its original, natural level, and was safely below the top of the moraine. The water was used to power a hydroelectric plant for Greenside Lead Mines.
A cast iron pipe had been inserted through the moraine somewhen in the 19th century, and had remained watertight. The internal end of the pipe had been carried well into the tarn; it had been well packed with peat and clay; and no sign of seepage round the pipe had ever been seen.
On the night of the storm, 29/30 October 1927, the sluice had been raised and the water level was well below maximum. Early in the morning the whole mass of water came down the valley, sweeping everything before it. A couple of hours later Glenridding Back was back to its ordinary flood level.

photograph
CCD48.jpg  
The failure of the moraine was a natural event. The theory is that a known phenomenon of winds forming a vortext in the cove during storms was intensified by the violent weather. The swirling winds caused swirling water, and large amounts of spray from waves were carried over the moraine, cut into it, and led to its failure. A new channel deepened so rapidly that the 'dam' burst and all the water was releaed to flow down the valley.
Although there were no deaths of people in the valley, destruction was considerable. At one shop the counter was washed half way through a plate glass window, the foodstuffs ended in the street, or in Ullswater. The post office and bank were both partly wrecked.
hearsay:-  
 This was a typical combe tarn held in by a terminal moraine. Water was drawn off for Greenside Lead Mines down the valley by a bore in the moraine.
The OS County Series sheet 1890s.shows the tarn fed by extra water channelled from the Brown Cove and other becks, and having a sluice at the SE. It is not clear how much the natural moraine had been built up with earth and cobbles - it has been suggested that this was done in 1870.
The earth barrier of the tarn failed in a storm the night of Saturday 29/30 October 1927 at 1.45am; a huge wave of water from the tarn caused a lot of damage in Glenridding. Bridges, trees and animals were carried into Ullswater. The roof of a hay barn above Glenridding Bridge was found lying on its hay 20 feet down the field, the walls gone. People found their beds floating up to their ceilings, and had to break out through windows - but no one was drowned.
evidence:-   outline view:- Jenkinson 1875
placename:-  Keppelcove Tarn
source data:-   Print, lithograph, outline view, Panoramic Sketches from Helvellyn, Westmorland, by Edwin A Pettitt, London, published by Edward Stanford, 55 Charing Cross, London, 1875.
image  click to enlarge
Jk01E1.jpg
"... Keppelcove Tarn ..."
item:-  JandMN : 28.5
Image © see bottom of page

photograph
CCD19.jpg  Gap in the moraine.
(taken 18.11.2014)  
photograph
CCD18.jpg  Gap in the moraine.
(taken 18.11.2014)  
notes:-  
 The original earth barrier was breached by storm water, Saturday 29 October 1927. The flood waters swept in Glenridding village.
also see:-    dam, Keppel Cove
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