Upper Derwent Valley

Last updated April 12, 2022

The Upper Derwent Valley is an area of the Peak District National Park in England. It largely lies in Derbyshire, but its north eastern area lies in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Its most significant features are the Derwent Dams, Ladybower, Derwent and Howden, which form Ladybower Reservoir, Derwent Reservoir and Howden Reservoir respectively.

History

In 1899, the Derwent Valley Water Board was set up to supply water to Derby, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield, and the two Gothic-style dams were built across the River Derwent to create Howden Reservoir (1912) and Derwent Reservoir (1916).^[1]

West of the Derwent a large village known as Birchinlee, locally known as 'Tin Town', was created for the 'navvies'—the workers who built the dams—and their families, many of whom came from the Elan Valley Reservoirs in Wales.^[1] One of the buildings was salvaged and rebuilt at Hope where in 2014 it was reported to be housing a beauty parlour.^[2]

The villages in the Upper Derwent Valley:

A standard-gauge railway, for transporting materials, connected the Water Board offices in Bamford with the work site. A section of the track of the railway is now a footpath; other sections are visible when water levels in the reservoirs are low. The railway engine house no longer exists at the old offices. The offices are now occupied by a Quaker group.

Over the decades, demand for water increased. Piped intakes were constructed from the rivers Ashop and Alport to the west to feed directly into the Derwent reservoir, but soon demand increased further to the point where another reservoir was required. The larger Ladybower Reservoir, built largely during World War II, necessitated the flooding of the villages of Derwent and Ashopton, with the occupants being relocated to the Yorkshire Bridge estate, just downstream of Ladybower dam. A packhorse bridge with a preservation order on it also had to be moved, and was rebuilt at Slippery Stones, north of Howden Reservoir. The bodies in the churchyard were exhumed and reburied at Bamford. The reservoir was completed in 1945.

The topographical similarity between the Upper Derwent Valley and the Ruhr Valley of Germany led to the dams being used as a practice environment for the Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron (Dam Busters) in 1943 before their attack on the Ruhr dams. The Dam Busters film was subsequently filmed at the Derwent Dams, and the area sees occasional commemorative flypasts by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

The reservoirs cover 198.50 square kilometres, and can hold 463,692 million litres. The main beneficiary of the reservoirs' water is Sheffield, less than 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) away, but the reservoirs are also connected to the Severn Trent's water grid that extends to mid-Wales and Gloucestershire. The reservoirs were originally intended to supply water to the cities of Sheffield, Derby, Leicester and Nottingham. Sheffield was supplied with "raw" water for treatment in its own treatment plants. The other cities were supplied with treated water. Water was treated at the Yorkshire Bridge works (now converted to apartments), and at the much bigger Bamford Filter works, much expanded in the 1960s.

The area is good for rare birds, including black grouse and goshawk. Much of the surrounding land is administered by the National Trust and is popular as a recreational area for walking and cycling.

Incidents

On 9 May 2016, a large moor fire was accidentally caused by a disposable barbecue on the moors above Ladybower Reservoir. The fire required the attendance of twelve fire engines from eight stations, Edale Mountain Rescue, and Peak Park and National Trust officials. Due to an incident involving a vehicle and a member of the emergency services, a Coastguard SAR helicopter and Yorkshire Air Ambulance were also required on the scene. The injured person was airlifted to the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield. During the incident all access roads to the reservoir were closed, though the A57 Snake Pass was unaffected.^[3]

Related Research Articles

The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorland is found and the geology gritstone, and the White Peak, a limestone area with valleys and gorges. The Dark Peak forms an arc on the north, east and west sides; the White Peak covers central and southern tracts. The historic Peak District extends beyond the National Park, which excludes major towns, quarries and industrial areas. It became the first of the national parks of England and Wales in 1951. Nearby Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Derby and Sheffield send millions of visitors – some 20 million live within an hour's ride. Inhabited from the Mesolithic era, it shows evidence of the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. Settled by the Romans and Anglo-Saxons, it remained largely agricultural; mining arose in the Middle Ages. Richard Arkwright built cotton mills in the Industrial Revolution. As mining declined, quarrying grew. Tourism came with the railways, spurred by the landscape, spa towns and Castleton's show caves.

The Derwent is a river in Derbyshire, England. It is 50 miles (80 km) long and is a tributary of the River Trent, which it joins south of Derby. Throughout its course, the river mostly flows through the Peak District and its foothills.

Birchinlee is the site of "Tin Town", a village built by the Derwent Valley Water Board for the workers who constructed the Derwent and Howden Dams between 1902 and 1916. Most of the workers had previously been engaged in the construction, in Wales, of the Elan Valley Reservoirs where the accommodation was very basic. At Birchinlee, a "model village" was built; its infrastructure included hospitals, school, canteen (pub), post office, shops, recreation hall, public bath house, police station, railway station, rubbish dump with incinerator, and much else. One of the shops was a well-stocked store owned by the Gregory brothers from Tideswell. Accommodation consisted of workmen's huts, foremen's huts and married workmen's huts. The latter were decorated to a high standard, as photographs from the period confirm. The population rose to 900 people.

Derwent Reservoir is the middle of three reservoirs in the Upper Derwent Valley in the north of Derbyshire, England. It lies approximately 10 miles (16 km) from Glossop and 10 miles (16 km) from Sheffield. The River Derwent flows first through Howden Reservoir, then Derwent Reservoir and finally through Ladybower Reservoir. Between them they provide practically all of Derbyshire's water, as well as to a large part of South Yorkshire and as far afield as Nottingham and Leicester.

The Howden Reservoir is a Y-shaped reservoir, the uppermost of the three in the Upper Derwent Valley, England. The western half of the reservoir lies in Derbyshire and the eastern half is in Sheffield, South Yorkshire; the county border runs through the middle of the reservoir, following the original path of the River Derwent. The longest arm is around 1.25 miles (2 km) in length. The reservoir is bounded at the southern end by Howden Dam; below this, the Derwent flows immediately into Derwent Reservoir and subsequently the Ladybower Reservoir. Other tributaries include the River Westend, Howden Clough and Linch Clough.

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 plc.

The River Noe is a tributary of the River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. It flows approximately 12 miles (19 km) from its source, the confluence of two streams running off Kinder Scout in the Peak District, east through Edale and then southeast through the village of Hope.

The River Ashop is a river in the Derbyshire Peak District, England. Its source is on the eastern slopes of Mill Hill, three miles south east of Glossop and just north of Kinder Scout.

High Peak is a borough in Derbyshire, England. Administered by High Peak Borough Council from Buxton and Glossop, it is mostly composed of high moorland plateau in the Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park. The district stretches from Holme Moss in the north to Sterndale Moor in the south and from Hague Bar in the west to Bamford in the east. The population of the borough taken at the 2011 Census was 90,892.

Bamford is a village in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England, close to the River Derwent. To the north-east is Bamford Edge, and to the north-west the Ladybower, Derwent and Howden Reservoirs. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 1,241.

The Hope Valley is a rural area centred on the village of Hope, Derbyshire, in the Peak District in the northern Midlands of England.

Win Hill is a hill north west of Bamford in the Derbyshire Peak District of England. Its summit is 462 m (1,516 ft) above sea level and it is bounded by the River Derwent to the east, the River Noe to the south west and Ladybower Reservoir to the north, with a ridge running north west linking it to Kinder Scout. The Roman road from Glossop over the Snake Pass crosses the ridge to the north and descends to Hope and the old Roman base of Brough in the Hope Valley, with the Hope Cross, a marker post dating from 1737, at the highest point of the road.

Bamford railway station Railway station in Derbyshire, England

Bamford railway station serves the village of Bamford in the Derbyshire Peak District, in England and is managed by Northern Trains. It is located 13 miles (21 km) west of Sheffield on the Hope Valley Line.

Derwent Edge is a Millstone Grit escarpment that lies above the Upper Derwent Valley in the Peak District National Park in the English county of Derbyshire. An Ordnance Survey column marks the highest point of the Edge at Back Tor. North of Back Tor the edge extends into Howden Edge and enters the county of South Yorkshire.

Derwent was a village 'drowned' in 1944 when the Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire, England was created. The village of Ashopton, Derwent Woodlands church and Derwent Hall were also 'drowned' in the construction of the reservoir.

The River Alport flows for 5.6 miles (9 km) in the Dark Peak of the Peak District in Derbyshire, England. Its source is on Bleaklow, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Glossop, from which it flows south through the Grains in the Water bog, then over gritstone below the Alport Castles landslide to Alport Bridge on the A57 Snake Pass route from Sheffield to Manchester, where it joins the River Ashop. The Ashop flows into Ladybower Reservoir about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) down the valley, which discharges via the Rivers Derwent and Trent to the North Sea. The source of the Alport is close to the Pennine watershed.

Yorkshire Bridge is a small hamlet at grid reference SK200850 near the Ladybower Reservoir dam in the English county of Derbyshire. Administratively the area forms part of the civil parish of Bamford and the district of High Peak. The people who built the Ladybower Dam wall lived in the houses at Yorkshire Bridge.

St John the Baptist church is a C of E church in Bamford in the Hope Valley, Derbyshire, England.

The Derwent Valley Water Board was constituted by Act of Parliament in 1899 to supply the cities of Derby, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield, and the county of Derbyshire, with water impounded by a series of reservoirs along the upper reaches of the River Derwent in the Peak District of Derbyshire.

Rivelin Dams are a pair of water storage reservoirs situated in the upper part of the Rivelin Valley, 5 miles (8 km) west of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. The dams are owned by Yorkshire Water and provide water to 319,000 people as well as compensation water for the River Rivelin. They are named Upper and Lower and fall just within the eastern boundary of the Peak District.

References

1 2 Bevan, B. (2004). The Upper Derwent: 10,000 years in a Peak District valley. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. pp. 141–159. ISBN 0-7524-2903-5.
↑ "The Peak District villages of Hope and Edale". Derbyshire Life and Countryside. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
↑ Torr, George (9 May 2016). "VIDEO: Firefighter taken to hospital tackling huge Peak District blaze". Matlock Mercury. Retrieved 10 May 2016.

External links

Coordinates: 53°16′28″N1°38′08″W / 53.27450°N 1.63559°W / 53.27450; -1.63559

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[Bevan-1] 1 2 Bevan, B. (2004). The Upper Derwent: 10,000 years in a Peak District valley. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. pp. 141–159. ISBN 0-7524-2903-5.

[2] "The Peak District villages of Hope and Edale". Derbyshire Life and Countryside. Retrieved 20 December 2017.

[matlockmercuryfire-3] Torr, George (9 May 2016). "VIDEO: Firefighter taken to hospital tackling huge Peak District blaze". Matlock Mercury. Retrieved 10 May 2016.

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