Linacre Reservoirs is a series of three reservoirs on the western outskirts of

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

, Derbyshire. The village of Old Brampton lies 500m to the south of the reservoirs. Linacre Lower Reservoir (storage capacity of 140 million litres, 9m deep) was built in 1855 following an Act of Parliament granting permission for its construction to supply drinking water to Chesterfield. Linacre Upper Reservoir was built in 1885 (capacity 575 million litres, 19m deep). Linacre Middle Reservoir was built in 1904 (capacity 410 million litres, 13m deep). From 1909 the public water supply was filtered through filter beds. Previously there were widespread complaints about its taste and odour, with a report that: "The appearance of the public water supply was such that the poor used it as soup, the middle class for washing their clothes and the elite for watering their gardens." They reservoirs ceased to be used for public water supply in 1995. The reservoirs are currently owned and operated by

Severn Trent 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 ...

Water. There is a public car park on the edge of the woods to the north of the Lower Reservoir. There are walking trails around the reservoirs, including a boardwalk section along the Upper Reservoir. Cycling is not permitted on the reserve. The woods around the reservoirs contain oak, beech, alder, larch and pine trees. Bluebells cover the woodland ground in springtime. The woods are habitat for

nuthatch The nuthatches () constitute a genus, ''Sitta'', of small passerine birds belonging to the family Sittidae. Characterised by large heads, short tails, and powerful bills and feet, nuthatches advertise their territory using loud, simple songs. Mo ...

es, flycatchers and

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...

s, whilst

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

s and

mandarin duck The mandarin duck (''Aix galericulata'') is a perching duck species native to the East Palearctic. It is medium-sized, at long with a wingspan. It is closely related to the North American wood duck, the only other member of the genus ''Aix''. ...

s live around the water's edge. The earthwork remains of the 16th-century lead smelt mill in Linacre Wood (160m east of the Lower Reservoir) is a protected

Scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

References

{{Reflist, 30em Reservoirs in Derbyshire