The Peak District National Park - Fact Zone 9. Upper Derwent Valley in the National Park

	The Park
	Tourism
	Land Use
	Conservation
	Design
	Farming
	Castleton
	Dovedale
	Upper Derwent
	Geology
	Minerals
	Nature
	Burbage Valley
	Erosion
	Bakewell
	Population
	Langsett
	The Rangers
	The Pennine Way
	The Goyt Valley
	Longdendale

Map of The Derwent Valley

The River Derwent rises high on the gritstone moors of Bleaklow and flows down the Derwent Valley to join the Woodlands Valley at Ladybower.

GEOLOGY

Derwent Reservoir

Millstone Grit (gritstone) which forms the high moorland either side of the valleys, was formed about 300 million years ago, after coarse sand and gravel were washed down from the mountains into a vast river delta. Mud and silt were also deposited in the river delta. pressure consolidated the sand and gravel into gritstone and the mud and silt into shale and then uplifted them. Layers of both these rocks can be seen in the valley sides. Landslips have occurred where shale has become soft and overlying rocks have become unstable. Alport Castles is a famous example of such a landslip and is protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

HISTORY

The first use of this area was as a summer hunting ground for early hunter/gatherers. Little is known of the first settlers, who came later. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Derwent Valley became part of the Royal Forest of the Peak This was a hunting reserve (not a forest in the modern sense) and there were harsh punishments for local people who cut peat, gathered wood or hunted animals in the Forest. An ancient bridleway ran through the valley from Derwent to Glossop and was used by the trains of packhorses transporting goods across the Peak District.

The village of Derwent before the valley was flooded

The Forest area was given to Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire and then, in the 16th century, to William Cavendish (who became the Earl of Devonshire). Derwent Hall in the village of Derwent, was built in 1672 by the Belguy family. It was later owned by the Duke of Norfolk and became a youth hostel in 1931.

A turnpike road (where the owner charged a fee or toll for the use of the road) was built through the Woodlands Valley by Thomas Telford in 1819. This road was named the Snake Road in honour of the Duke of Devonshire, whose crest is a snake. The road passed through the village of Ashopton, which grew with the increased traffic. At the end of the 19th century Derwent and Ashopton were two typical Peak District villages. The land around was not very fertile but there were 14 farms scattered in and around the valley. although the population was small, the villages had churches, a school, inns and shops.

THE RESERVOIRS

A reservoir is a man-made lake used to store water. It is usually formed by damming a deep narrow valley with a river running through and then flooding the valley. The Derwent valley was very attractive for building reservoirs as it has long deep valleys with narrow points for dam building, a high rainfall (average 1350 mm per year) and an almost uninhabited moorland catchment area.

The Peak District is surrounded by a number of large industrial towns with a great demand for water. The Derwent Valley Water Board was set up in 1899 to supply water to Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield and Leicester. Gothic style dams were built to contain the waters of Howden Reservoir (1912) and Derwent Reservoir (1916). Birchinlee village was built to house the workers and their families. Although sites for further reservoirs were earmarked, there was no need for another one then.

It was later decided to build one very large reservoir, Ladybower. This flooded the part of the valley where the villages of Derwent and Ashopton lay. New houses were built for the villagers at Yorkshire Bridge. A viaduct was built to carry the Snake Road over the reservoir at Ashopton and another for the road to Yorkshire Bridge. The packhorse bridge at Derwent, which had a preservation on it, was moved stone by stone and rebuilt at Slippery Stones at the head of the Howden Reservoir. The graves in the churchyard were excavated and the bodies reburied in an extension to Bamford churchyard. The water gradually rose and the remains f the demolished villages disappeared. The Derwent church tower was left standing at first but that too was demolished in 1947. Ladybower reservoir was finally completed in 1945.

Water Authorities

A Water Act was passed in 1973 and in 1974 the Derwent Valley Water Board’s reservoirs and land were transferred to the newly formed Severn Trent Water Authority, the second largest in the country. The Water Act of 1989 privatised the water industry and Severn Trent Water became a private company.

There have been worries that land with conservation and recreation value might be sold out of water authority control. However a provision in the Act says that the Countryside Commission must be consulted before land owned by the water company in a National Park can be disposed of.

Water Supply

Catchment area: 19,850 hectares
Reservoir capacity: 463692 million litres (3 reservoirs)
Treatment works: Yorkshire bridge, opened 1929
(water filtered, chlorine added Bamford Stage 1 opened 1948
and pH corrected) Bamford Stage 11 opened 1967

Where the water goes: (millions of litres)

173 to treatment works
450 (untreated) to Sheffield 77 68 27
Derbyshire Leicester Nottingham

In 1943 the Ladybower Dam was used for practice runs by the 617 Dambusters Squadron of Lancaster Bombers.

It was similar to the Ruhr Valley dams in Germany, which were raised in May 1943.





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