Bartley Reservoir is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

for

drinking water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, operated by

Severn Trent Water Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the ...

.Environment Agency public register of Large Raised Reservoirs, as at 2 November 2020, via It covers . The reservoir is about long, over wide, and about deep at the dam. Its surface area is . It is known as the place where

Bill Oddie William Edgar Oddie (born 7 July 1941) is an English writer, comedian, songwriter, musician, artist, birder, conservationist, television presenter and actor. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies. A birder since his childhood in Quinto ...

did much of his early

birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...

, and features in his books (notably ''Bill Oddie's Gone Birding'') and television programmes. His first ever published article, for the

West Midland Bird Club The West Midland Bird Club is the UK's largest regional ornithological society. It has been serving birdwatchers and ornithologists in the four English counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and (since its separation from the af ...

's annual report, was about the

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s of the reservoir. The reservoir is also home to Bartley Sailing Club.

History

Most of the land occupied by Bartley Reservoir was in the parish of

Northfield Northfield may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Northfield, Aberdeen, Scotland * Northfield, Edinburgh, Scotland * Northfield, Birmingham, England * Northfield (Kettering BC Ward), Northamptonshire, England United States * Northfield, Connect ...

, originally in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

. It was transferred to

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avo ...

when Northfield became part of Birmingham in November 1911, and thus became part of the

West Midlands county West Midlands is a metropolitan county in the West Midlands Region, England, with a 2021 population of 2,919,600, making it the second most populous county in England after Greater London. It was created in 1974 by the Local Government Act ...

on the latter's creation in 1974. However, the south-west end of the reservoir overlapped into the parish of Frankley, in Worcestershire (

Hereford and Worcester Hereford and Worcester was an English non-metropolitan county created on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 from the areas of the former administrative county of Herefordshire, most of Worcestershire (except Halesowen, Stourbridge ...

, from 1974).Ordnance Survey Landranger Sheet 139, 1982 edition In April 1995 part of Frankley (including the south-west part of Bartley Reservoir) was transferred to Birmingham and thus joined the rest of the reservoir in the West Midlands county. Shortly after the completion of the

Elan Valley Reservoirs The Elan Valley Reservoirs are a chain of man-made lakes created from damming the Elan and Claerwen rivers within the Elan Valley in Mid Wales. The reservoirs, which were built by the Birmingham Corporation Water Department, provide clean drin ...

in the early 1920s, it became apparent that more storage capacity would be required to maintain the daily supplies needed by

. The reservoir is close to the terminus of the Elan aqueduct and adjacent to Frankley Reservoir. The contract for the construction of the reservoir was let by

Birmingham Corporation Water Department The Birmingham Corporation Water Department was responsible for the supply of water to Birmingham, England, from 1876 to 1974. It was also known as Birmingham Corporation Waterworks Department. Early History 1808 - 1876 The earliest formal supp ...

in February 1925 to Edmund Nuttall, Sons and Co. Ltd., of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, and the Francois Cementation Company undertook all cementation. It was completed in 1930. The reservoir featured in a television programme in 1985, when Bill Oddie was interviewed there by

Julian Pettifer Julian Pettifer OBE (born 21 July 1935) is an English television journalist. He was president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and is vice president of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB. He was voted BAFTA 'Repor ...

for a 50-minute ''Nature Watch Special: Bill Oddie - Bird Watcher''.

References

External links

* *
Bartley Sailing Club
{{Authority control Drinking water reservoirs in England Reservoirs in Birmingham, West Midlands

History

See also

References

External links