Always look behind the trees …….. on discovering a dam

Even though we knew that the holiday stay was close to the Howdon Dam, nothing quite prepared us for just how close.

It was just a handful of yards from the back of the converted bar to the dark yellowy grey walls which rose impressively into the sky. 

My Wikipedia tells me that “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+1⁄4 mi (2.0 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.

Work commenced on the dam's construction on 16 July 1901 and completed in July 1912. The chief engineer was Edward Sandeman. 

He was also in charge of building nearby Derwent dam and was awarded the Telford Medal in 1918 for his work "Derwent Valley Waterworks". 

The works involved constructing a temporary village at Birchinlee, or "Tin Town", for the workers, a temporary railway line from the main line at Bamford, construction of a link aqueduct to the Derwent Dam. 

The dam is of solid masonry construction, and 117 ft (36 m) tall, 1,080 ft (330 m) long, and impounds 1,900,000 imp gal (8,600 kl) of water, from a catchment area of 5,155 acres (2,086 ha). 

The workers who died during the construction of the dam were buried in St John the Baptist's Church, Bamford".*

Our hosts told us that the converted barn had operated as a railway station which seemed a tad improbable but quite clearly it made sense as the "workman’s" railway ran just a  minute’s walk from where we stayed.

All of which also put me in my place, as I had wandered off thinking who would build a passenger railway lime here and why.

And so as ever history met the holiday assisted by the ever reliable Wikipedia.

Location; Beavers croft, Howden Dam, Derbyshire

Pictures; Beaverscroft, Howden Dam, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson