EMERGING FROM
THE WATER
Last autumn, unusually low water levels
at Ladybower Reservoir after the hot,
dry summer revealed the remains of the
abandoned village of Derwent, which
was looded in the 1940s – sacriicing
cottages, churches and historic
buildings, to make way for the building
of the reservoir.
The sight of the exposed village
attracted many visitors, and on one day
in November, Edale Mountain Rescue
Team were called out to come to the aid
of a man who got stuck in the mud after
wading out to the ruins.
Ladybower Reservoir was built
between 1935 and 1943. This was the
third time since then that the village
of Derwent had been exposed by low
water levels, the previous occasions
being after the famously hot summer of
1976 and in 1995.south-west, I’m gazing back towards
Win Hill and Mam Tor; to the north and
north-west, Row Top and lonely-looking
Bleaklow Head. In between, the country
rises and dips in an ocean of patched greens
and hazed outlines. Looking down, the
three reservoirs – though close by – are out
of sight, lost in the belly of the land. I keep
walking south.
Derwent Edge is a ine walk on a clear
day. It’s a ridge that’s well-marked but feels
wild, its direction swaying unsteadily
and its top interspersed with unearthly,
lop-sided rock formations. By the time
I reach the huddled hefalumps of the
Hurkling Stones, Ladybower Reservoir
is very much visible again, its surface
shattered into a million glittering shards
by the sunlight. It looks, dare I say it,
exceedingly picturesque.
I’ve let my car in the hamlet of
Yorkshire Bridge, which sits below the
great embankment of Ladybower Dam. It
was here that many of the residents of thenow-submerged Derwent and Ashopton
were rehoused. hree quarters of a century
on, this end of the reservoir makes for a
peaceable scene. And as I make my way of
the ridge and down to the water’s edge, I
take a moment to stop and stare. here are
ishermen casting for trout and swallows
litting low over the shore. he early-
evening sky is laced with white aeroplane
contrails. It’s not wilderness in any way,
shape or form, but I can think of far worse
places to linger.
In the 21st Century, almost every acre
of countryside we come across is in some
way altered from its natural state. Whether
that makes them more or less enjoyable,
or more or less authentic, is subjective.
hese reservoirs, and those like them in
National Parks around the country, won’t
be disappearing anytime soon. Are they
part of the character of the Peak? hese
days, yes. And perhaps, as with all tracts of
the outdoors, it’s not what you choose to
see, but how you choose to see it.[above] Looking out from Win HillPEAK DISTRICT
54 The Great Outdoors Spring 2019