Editing Upper Derwent Valley (section)

==History==
In 1899, the [[Derwent Valley Water Board]] was set up to supply water to [[Derby]], [[Leicester]], [[Nottingham]] and [[Sheffield, England|Sheffield]], and the two [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]]-style dams were built across the [[River Derwent, Derbyshire|River Derwent]] to create Howden Reservoir (1912) and Derwent Reservoir (1916).<ref name="Bevan">{{cite book |last=Bevan |first=B. |title=The Upper Derwent: 10,000 years in a Peak District valley |publisher=Tempus Publishing |year=2004 |location=Stroud|isbn=0-7524-2903-5|pages=141–159}}</ref>

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.<ref name="Bevan"/> One of the buildings was salvaged and rebuilt at [[Hope, Derbyshire|Hope]] where in 2014 it was reported to be housing a beauty parlour.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.derbyshirelife.co.uk/out-about/places/the-peak-district-villages-of-hope-and-edale-1-3447621|title=The Peak District villages of Hope and Edale|work=Derbyshire Life and Countryside|access-date=2017-12-20|language=en}}</ref>

The villages in the Upper Derwent Valley:
*[[Bamford]]
*[[Yorkshire Bridge]]
*[[Hathersage]]
*[[Grindleford]]
*[[Calver]]

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 [[Religious Society of Friends|Quaker]] group.

<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Pack horse bridge medium.jpg|thumb|200px|Pack Horse bridge in the Upper Derwent Valley.|{{Deletable image-caption|1=Monday, 1 June 2009|date=March 2012}}]] -->
[[Image:Derwent dam.jpg|thumb|200px|Derwent Dam]]

Over the decades, demand for water increased. Piped intakes were constructed from the rivers [[River Ashop|Ashop]] and [[River Alport|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 area|Ruhr Valley]] of Germany led to the dams being used as a practice environment for the [[Avro Lancaster|Lancaster bombers]] of 617 Squadron ([[Operation Chastise|Dam Busters]]) in 1943 before their attack on the Ruhr dams. [[The Dam Busters (movie)|''The Dam Busters'' film]] was subsequently filmed at the Derwent Dams, and the area sees occasional commemorative [[flypast]]s 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 {{convert|15|km}} 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 [[Eurasian goshawk|goshawk]]. Much of the surrounding land is administered by the [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]] and is popular as a recreational area for walking and cycling.