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

Everyone should have a dam ……… along with some history …. and a pot of Senegalese spiced fish stew and rice

 It started as a holiday but as so often happens it slid into a story and not just one story.

The barn and the dam, 2023

We were spending a few days in Derbyshire just a little north of Bamford hard up against the Howdown Dam.

The accommodation was a converted 17th century barn, which could sleep eight, has its own Facebook site and is pretty remote. * 

Having left the main road we followed the line of the reservoir, edging ever higher and deeper into the forest.  

Woods  and water, 2023

And we had been  warned we might encounter closed gates which would only be accessed by a code and yes we did get lost for a short while before realizing that this particular closed gate was not our closed  gate.

Still we arrived safely, were met by Abe and Pippa who own and maintain the barn along with their impressive farm house which sit in 2 acres of land, and in turn lead off into heaps of walks along the reservoirs and surrounded by tall trees.

The barn is advertised as off grid and as Abe said when confronted with requests for “the speed of the internet” he gently suggests “this might not be for you”. 

That said there is internet, a telly and all you need to make an evening in front of the wood burner a comfortable experience for a family of townies after the long walks in the forest.

The electricity comes from solar panels, the heat and hot water from a heat pump, but as reminder of just where you are there are two water falls feeding a stream at the bottom of the garden and dominating the site is the massive Hawdon Dam which was built in the early years of the last century.

Now unlike the rest of the family I am a tad ambivalent about nature, but I am sucker for big civil engineering projects and the Howdon Dam is up there on my list.

Marebottom Farm, 1896

On a bright spring day in April with sun cracking the paving stones it looks the part, but in the falling light it rises high above the barn with a hint of melancholy.

And yesterday evening while the rest of the family sat in front of the fire and talked about many things from shoes to ships and sealing wax, I went all 21st century, downloaded my 1896 OS map of Derbyshire and went looking for the farm and barn.

Today the complex is called Beavercroft which is a modern invention, and offered up no help in locating the farm and barn back in 1896, and no matter how many times I swapped from google maps to the OS the exact location eluded me.

But help was on hand as our Luca trawling the net came across a Design & Access and Planning Statement from 2015 which formed part of a planning submission for changes to the barn.**

Garden waterfall, 2023

Like all such documents it is a fascinating mix of the history and the intended changes to the building.

And there amongst details of the site’s past was the name of the farm which was Marebottom.

Once I had the name it was only a matter of minutes to locate it in 1896 and to match the present with the open land of the late 19th century.

Flowerpot and garden, 2023

Equally important in my evening quest was Luca’s other find which was a PhD thesis on the area going back into the early Medieval period.***

But by then the evening was drawing to a close and I chose to join the family and park that account for another day and another story.

Leaving me just to say despite planning ahead and bringing a shedload of food, we still ran out of eggs and tin foil, which Abb and Pippa supplied without  hesitation.

Added to which after a conversation with Luca on varieties of rice gown in west Africa, Abb arrived in the evening with a pot of Senegalese spiced fish stew and Jollof rice.  

A nice touch

Location; Howdon Dam

Pictures the barn and surrounding land at Beaverscroft with a more than a glimpse of the dam, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, Marebottom Farm, 1896, from the 1896 OS Map of Derbyshire, courtesy of courtesy of Digital Archives Association http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Beaverscroft, Ronksley S33 0B,  07368 308681

** BEAVERS CROFT | HOWDEN DAM | BAMFORD | DERBYSHIRE, Design & Access and Planning Statement from 2015  https://portal.peakdistrict.gov.uk/system/download/f/29436584

***The Upper Derwent: Long-term Landscape archaeology in the Peak District, William Bevan, PhD, Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, October 2003, https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/21779/2/401254_vol2.pdf