Tags

, , , , , ,

I have to admit I’m rather behind with these as today we’ve sallied forth from West Yorkshire to Derbyshire and back in order to walk around the Derwent valley dams and more – but that’s tomorrow’s story.

We were out an about yesterday but stayed local. Having driven over to Southport recently we’d passed the reservoir at Booth Wood near Ripponden. We were shocked to see the state of it so sore to return to get some pictures. If you’re familiar with the M62 motorway you’ll know the famous stretch where East and West carriageways part around Stott Hall farm. Well, Booth Wood is in the valley below – although you may not notice it.

Normally, when we drive past the water is cascading over the top of the dam. Not any more. Here’s how it looked yesterday.

The famous farm is the white building to the right of the picture.
You can see how low the water levels are by the fact that water would normally be cascading over the central (lower) part of the dam for much of the year. In the background is the notorious Scammonden Bridge which carries the B6114 high above the motorway.

Hving checked out Booth Wood we took off over backroads to a favorite and well-publicised location. Baitings reservoir gets a lot of publicity due to the old road bridge which appears when the dam is suffering from low water levels. I’ve featured it in several of these blogs. Only now it’s worse, with levels having dropped several more feet in just a few days. Having parked the car we decided to walk right around Baitings which was both lovely – and disturbing. Here’s how it looked.

Looking East from the road bridge towards the dam. Levels are dropping all the time.
As the water levels continue to drop features like this which haven’t been seen for years continue to be exposed. Was this an old quarry?
A few weeks ago there was still water under the old bridge. Not any more…
Standing on the old bridge looking back at the new. Consider the fact that when the reservoir is full the water level is about a meter below the bottom of this bridge.

Tomorrow I’ll add pictures from today’s adventures (and more).

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312