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Derwent Dam, Derbyshire - 03/09
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Kitty's Avatar
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Arrow Derwent Dam, Derbyshire - 03/09 - 15-03-2009, 20:52

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The Upper Valley of the Derwent is a deep valley surrounded by gritstone edges and dominated by three great reservoirs, constructed by the Derwent Valley Water Board primarily to provide water for Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham and Leicester.

The upper two dams, Howden and Derwent, were constructed between 1901 and 1916 and they were such a large undertaking that a village called Birchinlee was constructed in the upper valley to house the workers and a narrow-gauge railway was built between Howden Dam and the Midland Railway at Bamford. Traces of both these may still be seen. The dams were opened in 1916.

Another claim to fame for the Derwent reservoirs is their association with the 'Dambuster' squadron of the RAF, for they used the Derwent to practise for their famous raid on the Ruhr dams. Since then this event has been regularly commemorated in the Derwent valley with fly-pasts of old bombers and aerial displays. There is a small museum on this theme in the west tower of the Derwent Dam.

All pinched from the Cressbrook visitor site.

Was visiting the Dambusters museum today in order to have a chat with the lovely Vic Hallam, and managed to tag onto the end of ai tour of the workings of the dam itself.

Those of you with a thing for old style machinery please try not to dribble too much.



Heading down the stairs from the Museum


The first level of tunnels down into the dam wall itself


Some of the cabling for the lights


Looking back up the tunnel towards the tower base


The tunnel running the inside length of the dam wall itself. We were to walk along here soon. And yes that is a leak; the wall is covered in lime forming stalectites on the ceiling and coating the wall.


The first pump/valve room underneath the museum tower


The stairs back out of the first pump room


An external exit from the first valve room


Down on the bottom level of the valve room with the walkway to the right


One of the first release valves. i think it was water capacity


Gate at the end of the dam wall tunnel. We passed about half a dozen locked gates, recently put in to slow down any terrorists.


Detail of some of the valves. The wheels in use have had the handles removed and these big nuts attached in order for a drill to be inserted to spin it. Otherwise it woudl take two men 1000 revolutions to open each valve.


The vales in the second pump room underneath the empty tower


Looking up the stairs towards the ceiling of the empty tower




Looking up the Derwent Dam. Directly in the line the Dambusters would have flown down the valley from the higher up Howden.


Looking from one tower to the next. The remnants of the iron fence that used to be on the dam wall are still visible, These were removed due to the risk of fallen trees creating a higher wall and building up the water behind. The dam keepers used to walk this wall, one even cycling it, in order to get from one tower to the other without doing the walk I did today, which was bloody knackering.


If any of you wish to do this tour, then you need to contact Vic Hallam at the Dambusters Museum open on a sunday and BH Monday. Whilst there is no charge for the tour, don't be such a cheeky sod and make a donation to the museum.

And please excuse some of the images being blurred, the light levels were so low the shutter was on a longer exposure and I didn't have a tripod with me.

Last edited by Kitty; 01-04-2009 at 19:56. Reason: To add date
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