Hotels were built around it, helped by the arrival of the railway in 1839, which brought day-trippers and weekend visitors from Manchester, Bradford and Leeds.

The popularity of the lake as a resort declined in the early twentieth century and the area was used as an army camp in the First World War.

After the Second World War, boating rights were bought by Rochdale Council, who developed the area into the Hollingworth Lake Country Park in 1974.

[2][4] A ten-year statutory inspection of the reservoir in 2011 identified the need to improve the outflow arrangement so that water levels could be lowered more quickly in an emergency or after heavy rainfall.

The £1.25 million project included a 9-foot (2.7 m) concrete tower, with equipment on top raising its height by 9 feet (2.7 m)[10] but concerns expressed by the Friends of Hollingworth Lake and local councillors resulted in a tower half the height of the original design and clad in stone to fit in with the surroundings.

The four-month project began in autumn 2011 and the water level was reduced by 6.6 feet (2.0 m) while the work was in progress, but the lake remained open for watersports.

[13] The resort became known as the Weighver's Seaport, and Davenport's "Guide to Hollingworth Lake", published from 1860 onwards, extolled its virtues in typical Victorian fashion.

[14] There were two hotels in the area before the reservoir was built, the Fisherman's Inn, developed from farm buildings at Littleborough, and the Blue Ball at Smithy Bridge, which was demolished and rebuilt in the 1970s.

The Beach Hotel built at the start of development had accommodation and refreshment rooms, as well as outdoor platforms illuminated by gaslight which were used for picnic parties and dancing.

The company maintained a booking office at the ferry terminal which was connected to the hotel by a "Subaqueous Telegraph cable", laid on the lake bed.

Its grounds were designed by Mr Henderson of Birkenhead, and had a bowling green, a croquet lawn, shrubberies and rustic arbours.

Peanock Farm, on the south side of the lake, was rebuilt as the Queens Hotel in 1857, and had "a spacious pavilion and dancing stage in the grounds."

[16] In November 1865, Mr Newhall was notified of "the immoralities which it is stated take place in connection with the dancing stages at Hollingworth."

[17] At the height of its popularity in the late 19th century, there were three lake steamers, and visitors arrived by trains from Manchester, Leeds and Bradford.

A variety of stalls and lock-up shops, many close to the landing stage for the ferry, were soon trading in sweets, snacks and souvenirs, and on special holidays, there were fortune tellers, conjurers and tricksters.

The distance was covered in 26 minutes 8 seconds by a local man named Joseph Nuttall when he swam against McCusker from the United States, in the "World Professional Mile Championship", allegedly watched by a crowd of 20,000.

There was an upsurge in activity when a training camp for the Manchester Regiment was set up in the Ealees Valley and the hotels and local houses accommodated wives and visitors.

Day visitors could hire rowing or motor boats, but only the Fisherman's Inn and the Beach Hotel remained open.

[21] In 1950, the boating rights which had been held by the Water Board since 1923 were taken over by Rochdale Council, who also planned to turn the area into a country park in 1974.

The centre used to operate a 34-foot (10 m) launch The Lady Alice at weekends during the summer months to provide trips around the lake, but the boat has been out of service since 2009 as the local authority would could not justify the investment in retaining the vessel in a fit state.

A children's playground and trim trail for adults known as the Woodland Enviro Gym situated where the path joins Rakewood Road, was opened on 7 August 2010.

The facility was funded by the Big Lottery Community Spaces fund, and was the idea of the Friends of Hollingworth Lake,[25] a group working to improve the facilities, which was set up as an informal society in November 2007,[26] but was registered as a private company limited by guarantee in May 2010[27] to enable it to handle grant applications.

This effect of the sale would involve the existing visitors centre being redeveloped to remove the current facilities available with the addition of smaller cafeteria area accessible to the general public.