Years ago (25 I think!) whilst studying geography at secondary school, one of the examples of controlling access to the land was the Derwent Reservoir visitor management system.  If memory serves, access was controlled via the main car park (at Fairholmes) just beneath the Derwent Dam.  To gain access anywhere else, you needed to either walk, cycle or take a mini bus to the other locations up the Derwent Valley including the Howden Dam and Reservoir.  Things have changed slightly from how I recollect – access is limited at weekends and bank holidays in the way that I described, however at other times you are free to drive long the access road all the way to the King’s Tree, an oak planted by King Edward in 1945.

Tin Town, Derwent Reservoir

With this new found knowledge about access acquired from Rob Knight, I set out without an agenda in mind – no tick list of images of take, no idea of the terrain and no sneaky reccy of Flickr to see what others have shot.  Instead, I drove VERY slowly (because I could and I didn’t see another car for over an hour), looking around and making stops (and doing lots of reversing as well, once I made my mind up).

The first stop was at Tin Town on the shores of the Derwent Reservoir, but within sight of the Howden Dam.  Tin Town was the temporary village set up to accommodate workers and their families that built the dams using stone quarried from Bolehill.  All that remains now is the cellar of the bar, and the levels that the temporary (tin) houses were built upon.

 

Where is the Derwent Reservoir?

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