Claerwen Reservoir | |
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Location | Wales |
Coordinates | 52°16′20″N3°41′20″W / 52.27222°N 3.68889°W |
Type | Reservoir |
Basin countries | United Kingdom |
Surface area | 3.688 km2 (1.424 sq mi) |
The Claerwen reservoir and dam in Powys, Wales, were the last additions to the Elan Valley Reservoirs system built to provide water for the increasing water demand of the city of Birmingham and the West Midlands. The dam is built mainly of concrete, with the exterior dam face in dressed stone. The dam is a gravity dam built upon solid rock foundations as the pressure of the reservoir behind should be in equilibrium with the total weight of the dam itself thus causing complete stability.[ citation needed ]
The Claerwen dam was finished in 1952 and was given a late Victorian effect so that it blended in with the earlier dams in the valley. [1] It was necessary to employ the services of Italian stonemasons as British ones were still at work in London during the post-war rebuilding process of the late 1940s.[ citation needed ]
The dam took six years to complete and was almost twice the size of the other dams in the Elan valley. The Claerwen reservoir is almost the size of all the other reservoirs in the Elan Valley system combined. Officially commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II in 1952, it was one of her first royal engagements as monarch. [1]
Water from the reservoir flows via an underground aqueduct to the Caban-coch reservoir from which it is abstracted through a gravity aqueduct to Birmingham. [2]
Some idea of what was involved in the building of the dam is given by the quantities [3] of materials used. Approximately 1 ¼ million bricks, half a million tons of crushed stone, 200,000 tons of sand, 70,000 tons of cement and 18,500 tons of masonry had to be transported to the site, and an electricity generating station with a capacity of 1,500 h.p. was installed to provide power to operate the plant. Stone for concrete was obtained from a quarry about three miles away. Most of the sand was obtained from the Severn Valley, a distance of over 70 miles by road, and the low heat Portland cement used was made at Aberthaw in South Wales, taken to Rhayader Station by train in specially made containers, and carried to the site by a fleet of lorries. About 370 men were employed in building the dam. The contractors, Edmund Nuttall, Sons and Co. (London) Ltd., provided a temporary camp for 200 of them, with bungalows for members of the staff. This was about seven miles away and outside the catchment area. Others were accommodated in Rhayader. Local men were among those who took part in the work, and they were transported to the site daily in coaches, in some cases from a distance of 40 miles.
Claerwen National Nature Reserve is an expanse of mountain upland lying halfway between Rhayader in Powys and Pontrhydfendigaid in Ceredigion. The mainly peaty and acidic soil provides an environment which is home for many species of plants and animals which thrive in these conditions. These biomes include several highly oligotrophic lakes and ponds, raised mires and large areas that have seen little or any man-made changes. These include the nationally scarce water plantain ( Luronium natans ) as well as carnivorous plants such as Drosera rotundifolia , and butterworts. [4] It is a known breeding site for red kite and merlin .
In 2015 the dam was featured in the fourth episode of series twenty-two of the BBC motoring programme Top Gear. During the episode Richard Hammond winched a Land Rover Series I up to the top of the dam, and down again, in mimicry of an advert once used for the vehicle, during a tribute segment for the Land Rover Defender. [5]
Powys is a county and preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham to the north; the English ceremonial counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire to the east; Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and Neath Port Talbot to the south; and Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion to the west. The largest settlement is Newtown, and the administrative centre is Llandrindod Wells.
Ladybower Reservoir is a large Y-shaped, artificial reservoir, the lowest of three in the Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, England. The River Ashop flows into the reservoir from the west; the River Derwent flows south, initially through Howden Reservoir, then Derwent Reservoir, and finally through Ladybower Reservoir. The reservoir is owned by Severn Trent.
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The Elan Valley Reservoirs are a chain of man-made lakes created from damming the Elan and Claerwen rivers within the Elan Valley in Mid Wales. The reservoirs, which were built by the Birmingham Corporation Water Department, provide clean drinking water for Birmingham in the West Midlands of England. The five lakes are known as the Claerwen, Craig-goch, Pen-y-garreg, Garreg-ddu, and Caban-coch.
Rhayader is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, within the historic county of Radnorshire. The town is 20 miles (32 km) from the source of the River Wye on Plynlimon, the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains, and is located at the junction of the A470 road and the A44 road 13 miles (21 km) north of Builth Wells and 30 miles (48 km) east of Aberystwyth.
Lake Vyrnwy is a reservoir in Powys, Wales, built in the 1880s for Liverpool Corporation Waterworks to supply Liverpool with fresh water. It flooded the head of the Vyrnwy valley and submerged the village of Llanwddyn.
The Elan Valley is a river valley situated to the west of Rhayader, in Powys, Wales, sometimes known as the "Welsh Lake District". It covers 70 square miles (180 km2) of lake and countryside.
The Cordeaux Dam is a heritage-listed dam in Cordeaux, New South Wales, Australia. It provides water to the Macarthur and Illawarra regions, the Wollondilly Shire, and metropolitan Sydney. It is one of four dams and weirs in the catchment of the Upper Nepean Scheme. Completed in 1926 under the supervision of Ernest Macartney de Burgh, the dam is owned by Water NSW, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 18 November 1999.
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The Elan aqueduct crosses Wales and the Midlands of England, running eastwards from the Elan Valley Reservoirs in Mid Wales to Birmingham's Frankley Reservoir, carrying drinking water for Birmingham.
Cwmdauddwr is a village in Powys, Wales. It is contiguous with the town of Rhayader on the opposite side of the River Wye. The village is located on the B4518 road linking Rhayader with the Elan Valley Reservoirs.
The Birmingham Corporation Water Department was responsible for the supply of water to Birmingham, England, from 1876 to 1974. It was also known as Birmingham Corporation Waterworks Department.
Elan Village is a small purpose-built community in Powys, Wales. It was designed by architect Herbert Tudor Buckland as part of Birmingham Corporation's scheme to construct a series of water supply reservoirs in the Elan Valley between 1892 and 1904. It housed workers and their families responsible for maintaining the scheme's dams and the filtration systems. Elan Village is the only purpose-built Arts and Crafts "model village" in Wales.
The Elenydd is an upland area of Mid Wales, extending across parts of northern and eastern Ceredigion and Powys between Aberystwyth and Rhayader. Elenydd is also a name given to the medieval commote of Cwmwd Deuddwr which covered approximately the same area.
Monks Trod is a byway open to all traffic in Wales, developed originally by Cistercian monks between the twelfth century abbeys of Cwm-Hir, near Llandrindod Wells, and Strata Florida, near Tregaron, Ceredigion.
The Claerwen Group is a Silurian lithostratigraphic group in mid Wales. The name is derived from Claerwen in Powys where the strata are exposed. The Group comprises the Rhayader Mudstones Formation and the underlying Derwenlas Formation which outcrop across the region. The rocks of the Rhayader Mudstone Formation have variously been known as the Rhayader Pale Shales, Rhayader Pale Shales Formation and Cwmsymlog Formation.
The Grwyne Fawr Reservoir is located in the valley of the river Grwyne Fawr in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Wales. Completed in 1928, it has the capacity to hold 400,000,000 imperial gallons.
The Boothtown Aqueduct is a heritage-listed 19th-century, Victorian Romanesque style water bridge in Greystanes, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1888, the aqueduct was built to cross a valley to carry water from Prospect Reservoir to residents of Greater Western Sydney.
There are a large number of reservoirs in Wales reflecting the need for the supply of water for both industry and for consumption, both within the country itself and in neighbouring England. A number also provide hydroelectricity and many old reservoirs also provided motive power for industries, especially for the processing of minerals such as metal ores and slate.