Ashop River Capture is a very clever bit of reservoir engineering completed 96 years ago. The Derwent Valley Water Board was formed by Act of Parliament in 1899 to construct new reservoirs to supply the growing cities of Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and
Sheffield. Howden Reservoir opened in 1912 and Derwent Reservoir in 1916. Water passed by pipeline to the Bamford Water Treatment filtration works at Yorkshire Bridge, then by the Derwent Valley Aqueduct to cities lower down the Derwent Valley. But by the 1920s the water supply was found to be inadequate to meet the rising demand. The capture of water from the River Ashop was an important strategy of the Derwent Valley reservoirs project, and was completed in 1928. It significantly increases the
catchment of the Derwent Reservoir, by adding rainwater from over 6000 hectares in the Ashop valley, thereby providing more water for the cities. This was long before the third
and largest reservoir, the Ladybower, was built.
Location 16 Derwent Reservoir River Ashop Capture outfall
GeoCross 