Category Archives: Reservoir blogs

2nd January reservoir walk…

02 Friday Jan 2026

Posted by in Food and drink, Reservoir blogs, Travel, Walking, West Yorkshire

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With New Year behind us and the weather remaining cold but turning sunny we felt it was time to work off some of the festive food by heading out to explore a new walk. Looking at our options I plumped for another water walk, this time around the Digley reservoir near Holmbridge in the Holme valley, near the well-known town of Holmfirth (the setting for the long-running TV series ‘last of the summer wine’).

The drive over to Digley takes about 45 minutes cross-country, which isn’t bad, although the closer we got the more ‘interesting’ the country roads became due to a mixture of shallow snow and black ice which was cunningly hidden in the shadows. Digley is actually two reservoirs, with the smaller Bilberry up above it.

Bilberry has an interesting history. It was the original of the two, and in 1852 it burst, spilling 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme, causing 81 deaths and a large amount of property damage. The disaster caused a change in the way dams were built from then on.

In contrast, Digley wasn’t opened until 1954, despite being planned in the 1930s. The waters now cover the site of two mills and a pub, amongst other buildings. Here’s how the area looked in 1915.

There plenty of car parking at either end of the dam. The walk’s very pleasant as it passes through woodland and also dips and climbs as the well-maintained paths don’t follow the reservoir edge too closely so you get a variety of views. Here’s a few pictures from our trip.

Looking down on Digley with the dam in the distance.
Looking down on the Digley reservoir from Greaves Head. The edge of the Bilberry dam can be seen at the very right hand edge of the picture. As you can see, there’s some gorgeous views across the Holme valley from here.
Looking back the opposite way from the dam itself, with the large and ornate dam drain in the foreground (which isn’t open to the public, for obvious reasons).

There’s nowhere to buy food or drink near the dam, so bring your own. However, the Fleece Inn in nearby Holme does food and a range of real ales and other drinks.

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

Cheers!

Paul

Reservoir (and more) blogs. Part 7…

22 Monday Sep 2025

Posted by in Climate Change, Photography, Railways, Reservoir blogs, Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade, West Yorkshire

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After Sodden Saturday we had Sunny Sunday, a day which encouraged the pair of us to get out and make the most of things. As we’d heard about all the rain Yorkshire had seen whilst we were away in Portugal we thought we’d check out how things stand with some of the local reservoirs. However, there was something else I was keen to have a look at seeing as we were out in the car – and that was progress on rebuilding Huddersfield station. Dawn kindly detoured so we could take a look. Here’s some of what we saw.

The view inside the trainshed seen from the nearby road bridge (which offers a grandstand view). To the right is the newly extending bay platform used by terminating services from Sheffield. The old Platform 1 have been extended outwards, taking over the course of the old track, which has been re-laid closer to the old platform 3. Originally there were four tracks running through this part of the station, but the centre two roads were removed in the 1980s.
What a change! This was the site of platform 8 and the stabling sidings. The smaller station roof has been removed and all tracks lifted. Eventually, a new island platform will be built here.
The area in the centre of the picture was the site of the two short bay platforms. They’ve disappeared completely. The only remains are the wooden platform end fence to the right of the yellow crane. The Eastward extensions of the through platforms, which have been built over the replacement William St bridge.
A general view of the North side of the station and old island platform. The roof’s gone, as has the signalbox. Only the lift shaft and an equipment room remain.

Having checked out TRU progress we headed out to the M62 for a short trip to Junction 22 where we passed the Booth wood reservoir. We’d visited it back in August when it was looking perilously low. To be honest, there seemed little difference in the levels, as this picture shows.

From Booth wood it was a short drive to Baitings, where we got a surprise as levels have increased by around 3 meters.

Looking towards the dam from the new road bridge. Just a few days ago an earlier dam could be seen in the foreground. It disappeared again virtually overnight thanks to the recent rains.
The old bridge has water under it once more as the Ryburn has started bringing water down from the moors.
A torrent of water is entering the reservoir from Horse Hay Clough which runs off the moors to the North of the res’.

Does this mean an end to the drought? I doubt it. No more rain’s forecast, and there’s still a lot of ground (or should that be water) to make up…

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


Reservoir blogs. Part 6…

27 Wednesday Aug 2025

Posted by in Climate Change, Derbyshire, Photography, Reservoir blogs, Travel, West Yorkshire

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Yesterday the pair of us made the best of the good weather to break out of Yorkshire to cross the border into Derbyshire and visit some old haunts. Regular visitors to my blog will know that visiting and walking around reservoirs (when feasible) has become a bit of a hobby this year – mainly because of the drought we’re experiencing this year which is leaving so many of the places we visit with abnormally low water levels.

We’ve been visiting the Derwent valley for many years, but until now we’ve never seen the various reservoirs in the area as low as they are now. But to get there we had to pass others. Langsett reservoir is South of Penistone. We’ve walked around it in the past but this time it was merely a photographic stop.

Going, going…

With it being a bank holiday we weren’t the only ones heading for the Derwent valley. Far from it. The roads around Ladybower were chokka with vehicles, leaving parking at a premium. We decided to head to our usual parking place at the Fairholmes car park in the shadow of the Derwent dam. Even this large car-park was full, but we were lucky and managed to find a recently vacated space. Others weren’t so lucky, ending up circling the car-park several times before finding a spot.

We headed off to the Eastern side of the Derwent dam to take our usual route towards Howden. It’s an easy walk along a wide, well-made (albeit unmetalled) track that doubles as part of the circular cycle track that encompasses both the Derwent and Howden reservoirs. As we had plenty of time and the Howden dam’s only a 30 minute walk away we decided to extend our walk as far as ‘slippery stones’ which is at the end of the Northern most finger of the res’ before continuing around the West bank. The first leg is along a track which turns into a metalled road all the way back to Fairhomes. Here’s a selection of pictures.

One of the impressive towers of the Howden dam seen from the Eastern side. Like Derwent dam, these were built in Victorian Gothic style.
The Western finger of the Howden reservoir, showing just how little water remains.
Looking North up the Northern finger of the Howden reservoir towards ‘slippery stones’
Just South of ‘tin town’ are these remains of a bridge from the works railway used in the construction of the dams. This ran for 7 miles from Bamford to Birchinlee (aka ‘tin town’ after the corrugated iron shacks built to house the workforce).
Looking North along the Derwent reservoir from Hern Side with the towers of the Howden dam in the background and the old railway bridge in the foreground. ‘Tin town’ was located on the woods to the left of the bridge. You can learn more about the construction of the dams and reservoirs from this link.

We ended up walking about 10 miles around the reservoirs before getting back to the car-park. As you can see from the pictures, it was a lovely day – and one where a gentle breezed prevented us from overheating en-route. On the way home we had one last stop to make, at the Woodhead reservoir East of Hadfield. It borders the old Manchester to Sheffield Woodhead railway (hence the name). It’s another res’ that’s retreating rapidly, as you can see from this picture.

Frankly, I can’t see any chance of the water levels in these reservoirs improving this summer. We’ve had some desultory rain showers over the past couple of days which has done little other than damp the dust down. There’s no proper rain forecast in the future either, so I expect future pictures of these reservoirs will look even bleaker. Watch this space…

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

Reservoir blogs. Part 5…

25 Monday Aug 2025

Posted by in Photography, Reservoir blogs, West Yorkshire

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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

Reservoir blogs – part 4…

15 Friday Aug 2025

Posted by in Climate Change, Musings, Photography, Reservoir blogs, West Yorkshire

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I hadn’t intended writing a reservoir blog today. Far from it. We should’ve been at the Southport flower show, but yesterday I was stung on the lefthand by some flying critter which – unbeknown to me – had landed on my long camera lens when I was taking pictures at Deansgate. As I swung the camera up to grasp the lens I felt an electric shock, then saw something fly off in an erratic fashion but not before the little bugger has left me a present jabbed into the joint of my index finger. I thought no more about it as it stung but wasn’t too much of a problem – until I woke up this morning…

Overnight, my left hand had swollen up like an overstretched balloon, with the skin displaying some interesting if alarming colours and the centre of the sting looking very angry indeed. So, a trip to A&E it was! Calderdale Royal infirmary is a modern hospital with excellent staff, but waiting times in A&E can vary considerably. Today wasn’t the best day as we spent all morning there, however, the Asian Doctor who treated me was really very good, being both thorough and informative. The result was I came away with lots of good advice and reassurance plus a course of antibiotics as the sting was clearly infected.

All of this put paid to going to the flower show.

Instead we spent the much of the day pottering around at home. My arm was in a sling so I wasn’t able to do too much, leaving poor Dawn to bear most of the domestic burden. Dee’s been a star throughout, hanging around with me in A&E and driving me where I needed to go – as well as picking up on the jobs I’d normally be doing.

By late afternoon we’d both had enough as the weather was superb, so we decided to nip out for a while. At my suggestion we drove up to Baitings reservoir, just to see how things were going. The answer? Badly, as these pictures illustrate.

Looking towards the dam from the old road bridge which is normally submerged.
I walked further along the dry reservoir bed to get shots of the two bridges together which shows how the stream that feeds the reservoir with water off the moors is reduced to a trickle.
Looking at the old bridge I’d estimate that levels have dropped by at least 6 feet since our last visit.
The parlous state of the reservoir. Yorkshire water reckon their reservoirs are around 42% full right now compared to the seasonal average of 75%. I’d suggest that Baitings is far lower than that. Give it another few weeks and I doubt there’ll be much left at all.

Tomorrow we might make another attempt to attend the Southport flower show. My hand seems to be responding to the antibiotics, antihistamines and Ibuprofen (even if I do rattle when I walk), but we’ll see how things are in the morning. My view is – as long as it hasn’t dropped off during the night…

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