File:Barbrook Reservoir - geograph.org.uk - 1585458.jpg

English: Barbrook Reservoir This reservoir lies on Big Moor, which is the huge tract of moorland between the Owler Bar to Froggatt Road and the Owler Bar to Baslow Road. Recently the water has been drained off and the dam wall breached. This is because the reservoir has not been used as a water supply source for many years. To comply with current safety legislations, it has been necessary to drain and formally ‘discontinue' the structure to ensure that it can no longer retain significant volumes of water.

The ‘still' or pond reservoir was originally constructed by impounding the Bar Brook, which rises on Totley Moss and eventually joins the River Derwent at Baslow, by Chesterfield RDC Waterworks Department in about 1882. Subsequently, in 1908 or 1910 a new dam wall was constructed to encompass some 30 acres and hold 100 million gallons of water; at it's deepest the new reservoir was 34 feet deep.

The embankments were constructed from materials dug from the reservoir basin and although the supply works were demolished in 1999, the reservoir continued to hold water but the integral iron and steel structures became so severely corroded that the safe operation of the draw-off valves was no longer possible.

Consultants were retained in 2001 to draw up a scheme for restoration of the area, facilitate the establishment of new habitats. Key species are twite, snipe and curlew, reptiles and invertebrates. Under those plans it is intended that the streams would be re-established. Just below the main reservoir is a small ‘still' reservoir and here I have seen large numbers of dragonflies.

This is part of an article by Brian Edwards, which appeared in "Bradway Bugle"