Langsett Reservoir is in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

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 b ...

, near the villages of

Langsett Langsett is a village and civil parish near Penistone in South Yorkshire. It lies near the southern edge of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and on the edge of the Peak District National Park. At the 2001 census it had a population of 161, ...

and

Upper Midhope Upper Midhope (archaic ''Over Midhope'') is a village in the civil parish of Bradfield within the Stocksbridge and Upper Don electoral ward in the borough of the City of Sheffield, England. It lies just on the edge of the Peak District national ...

, on the edge of the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...

National Park. The

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 contro ...

was constructed between 1898 and 1904, and is now managed by

Yorkshire Water Yorkshire Water is a water supply and treatment utility company servicing West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire, in England. The company has its ...

. Fed by the Little Don or Porter River, it is around a mile long, and supplies water for

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

and Barnsley via the Langsett Treatment Works.

Construction and statistics

Construction of the reservoir began in 1898, the logistics of getting the workforce and materials to Langsett caused great difficulty as most of them came up from Sheffield. This involved a journey over four different stretches of railway line, the first leg was from

Sheffield Midland Station Sheffield station, formerly ''Pond Street'' and later ''Sheffield Midland'', is a combined railway station and tram stop in Sheffield, England; it is the busiest station in South Yorkshire. Adjacent is Sheffield station/Sheffield Hallam Unive ...

Deepcar Deepcar is a village located on the eastern fringe of the town of Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, England. It is in the electoral ward of Stocksbridge and Upper Don, approximately north-west of Sheffield city centre.Ordnance survey. 1:25000. c ...

, this was followed by a journey to Stocksbridge on the Samuel Fox and Company private line. From the Samuel Fox steelworks a new one mile long line was built to reach the

Underbank Reservoir The Underbank is an area of Stockport, Greater Manchester, containing the streets of Little Underbank and Great Underbank. Originally considered the finest shopping street in Stockport during the 19th century, the street was dubbed as Stockport's ...

to join up with the Water Authority track up to Langsett Reservoir.''"History Of Langsett"'', Jack Branston, (1986) Gives details of construction and reservoir statistics. The reservoir is in area with a depth of and has a holding capacity of 1,408 million gallons, making it the largest of the water supply reservoirs in the immediate Sheffield district. The catchment area is the Langsett Moors to the west and this covers an area of . The embankment is long with a height of from the bottom of the old river bed. The embankment is wide at the bottom tapering to at the top and contains 900,000 cubic yards of infill in the

puddle A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface. A puddle is generally shallow enough to walk through, and too sma ...

wall and concrete trench, making it one of the largest earth embankments in Great Britain. The minor road (Midhope Cliff Lane) which runs across the embankment is thought to be the longest single carriageway of any reservoir in Great Britain. The embankment road has a sharp bend in it as it joins the A616 main road, this was a last minute change in construction plans, as keeping it straight would have meant the demolition of the Waggon and Horses

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

. The reservoir was completed in 1904 when Alderman T.R. Gainsford closed the valve in the Langsett tower and the reservoir started to fill up, he was then presented with a golden key by the engineer William Watts. Local depopulation was used in the early part of the twentieth century to improve the water purity, and six farms were abandoned these included Brookhouse farm and North America farm, the last farmer left around 1907. The ruins of North America remain to the south-west of the reservoir even though it was used for target practice during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

.Information boards at reservoir give details of farms. In 1962 conifers were planted around the reservoir as shown on the map, with the aim of providing a habitat for many species of indigenous wildlife. This plantation is called Langsett Woods. In recent years the woods have been restructured with most of the coniferous trees being felled and being replaced by

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

and

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains ...

trees in an effort to create a new upland oak woodland. In 2007 a pond was created near Brookhouse Bridge at the western end of the reservoir to help

dragonflies A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threa ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

newt A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aqua ...

s and

toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scient ...

s establish new colonies.Information boards at reservoir give details of wildlife and woodland. The Pennine peaks of Pike Lowe (478 m) and Hingcliff Common (358 m) lie to the south and south-west of the reservoir, respectively. The area is used for

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated ...

farming and

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondria ...

shooting, and it is popular with walkers, mountain bikers and

birdwatchers 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 ...

with

treecreeper The treecreepers are a family, Certhiidae, of small passerine birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere and sub-Saharan Africa. The family contains eleven species in two genera, '' Certhia'' and '' Salpornis''. Their plumage ...

s, great spotted woodpeckers and red grouse to be seen in the vicinity.Peak District Education
Gives details of reservoir and treatment works.

Langsett water treatment works

The present day Langsett water treatment works were built to replace the older works at Midhope and Langsett reservoirs. The older works used sand filter beds to treat the water, although the water was safe to drink, the sand filters had never been able to remove the brown colouration caused by rainwater falling on the surrounding peat moorland. After much complaining from consumers, it was decided in 1980 to build a completely new treatment works. South Yorkshire Water Authority gave permission in December 1981 to build the works in an old quarry adjacent to the reservoir wall. Worked started in 1983 with water from the new works going into the supply system in July 1986. The works clarify the water by the addition of chemicals before the filtration stage to bring it up to the latest EU standards. The works can produce 60,000 cubic metres (60 million litres) of water per day. In 2017 a £20 million scheme was announced by Yorkshire Water to upgrade the treatment works to further improve the discolouration and remove deposits from the raw water collected from the moors around the reservoir. The work began in September 2017 and will take three years to complete.Yorkshire Water
Details improvement to treatment works started in 2017.

Recreation

The

Peak District Boundary Walk The Peak District Boundary Walk is a circular walking trail, starting and finishing at Buxton and broadly following the boundary of the Peak District, Britain's first national park. The route was developed by the Friends of the Peak District (a ...

runs along the north side of the reservoir and across the dam.

References

External links

Yorkshire Water
– Langsett Reservoir {{authority control Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley Reservoirs of the Peak District Reservoirs in South Yorkshire