We’re looking for a unique site where you can enjoy nature at its best

A unique location

We’re looking for the perfect location for Yorkshire Swim Works and the site has to be better than the one we originally pursued (the former water treatment works below Thornton Moor reservoir in Oxenhope), which was sold at Auction on 12 July 2023 for more than we could afford at the time.

Yorkshire Swim Works will work best on a site that we can own as a community.

We’d love to find somewhere that offers our swimmers a truly unique experience.

Industrial heritage reimagined

Yorkshire was once the heartland of the textile industry in England, and many of its mills were powered by reservoirs that supplied water to waterwheels or turbines. Victorian treatment works created clean drinking water for mill workers, but many of these mills and water works now lay abandoned. 

The Bradford countryside is interlinked by The Pennine Way, The Bronte Way, The Millennium Way and the Calder Aire Link. Cyclists and hikers, residents and tourists are already enjoying this unique and beautiful natural place. The moorland’s wildlife heritage is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including rare and endangered species such as the black grouse and curlew.

Destination Yorkshire

Yorkshire Swim Works aims to become one of the first naturally filtered public swimming pools in the UK, integrating nature, sport and wellbeing in a facility that is more common in Scandinavia and Europe.

Thornton Moor is associated with the Bronte sisters, who grew up in the nearby village of Haworth and were inspired by the rugged beauty of the moors to create some of their most famous works, including Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.

We aim to become a national treasure in the heart of Yorkshire, meeting criteria as set out in the Bradford Council Plan for Better Health, Better Lives + Safe, Strong and Active Communities.

 

Yorkshire Swim Works will bring a new dimension to established routes, encouraging people to connect sport, swimming, nature, wildlife and cultural heritage in a whole new way. 

~ Caroline Kindy