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One of the places which we visited was Ladybower reservoir. The picture above shows part of the dam. There is water flowing over the top into the lake below. This is one of several locations which were used by the RAF to practice for the WW2 Dam busters and was used as the location for part of the original film that was make re-telling the story.
It has been a bit of a funny week for taking pictures but the afternoon that I took these was one of the best ones. I used my new little Canon and it was the first time that I had used it for outside pictures.
This is probably the best picture of the bunch and it is looking back away from the main Dam itself.
What I had forgotten is that to build this Dam two villages had to be flooded. Derwent and Ashopton are both submerged below the water.
This is a picture of Ashopton with the building of the Viaduct going on in the background started around 1940. The viaduct is still in use and the remains of the village is now under the water right by the viaduct. Finished by around 1941.
Above is the village of Derwent before the flooding.(1912)
Derwent Hall was also flooded as part Dam building. Quite a stately house at the time and had been built in 16 72.
There is lots of information on this topic and the picture of the half submerged church spire is very thought provoking. It was later demolished fully in the 1940's on health and safety grounds.
Three reservoirs in total were built between 1935 to 1945.
It took Ladybower reservoir two years to fully fill up. At very low water some remains of Derwent have been seen but Ashopton is so close to the viaduct that remains of that village are rarely, if ever seen. There is lots of additional information on the Internet about these two villages but also others around the world, villages that have disappeared for a variety of reasons.
I thought this might be of interest as to look at the water Sophie was astonished that there had been two villages on that site!
xx
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6 comments:
I come from the south west side of Sheffield and in the hot, dry summer of 1976 Ladybower dam was so low most of the village of Dewent was exposed. Us Sheffielders went on drives out to look at it. I'm sorry I didn't have a camera then to record the event.
it's lovely around ladybower, it's where me and hubby had our wedding pics taken!
http://www.sykesssillysite.co.uk/wedding/wedding018.jpg
Josie x
there are some books about the villages, more info here
http://www.sykesssillysite.co.uk/p16_derwent.htm
Josie x
What a lovely post! Me and Rich used to live in Buxton and often used to go walking up there, I'd forgotton all about it till reading this, all your extra info was really interesting too. I can't remember what its called but occasionally they mention on the news here, (we live in wales now) about the Welsh village that was flooded as a reservoir for Liverpool.
Gosh, this has genereated a lot of interest. My hit counter has shot up today. I stumbed on a story about an Italian village that has disappeared and regular readers will know about my interest in Italy so I think I shall follow
that up too.
Under water pictures of Derwent would have been fascinating to look at.
Hi Andrea, as with everyone else, this has been such an interesting posting, but what occurred to be was the timing of it all. How important the dam was to Guy Gibson and his squadron and it sounds as if it had only just been finished by a year or two.
I love the area and your pictures are really good, we used to trundle around this area on my dad's motor bike and sidecar in the '50's, happy memories :0)
Thanks for taking the time to share,
Val xx
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