Ogston 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 contro ...

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 ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. It is near the villages of Brackenfield and

Ashover Ashover is a village and civil parish in the English county of Derbyshire. It is in the North East Derbyshire district of the county. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was 1,905. It sits in a valley, not far from the tow ...

and the town of

Clay Cross Clay Cross is a town and a civil parish in the North East Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England. It is a former industrial and mining town, about south of Chesterfield. It is directly on the A61. Surrounding settlements include North Wi ...

. The reservoir takes its water from the

River Amber The River Amber is a left bank tributary of the River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. It gives its name to the local government district and borough of Amber Valley. The name Amber is a pre-Celtic word with uncertain meaning. Course Its sou ...

and was originally created to supply the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

's Carbonisation Plant at

Wingerworth Wingerworth is a large village and parish in North East Derbyshire, England. Its population, according to the 2011 census, was 6,533. Wingerworth is southwest of Chesterfield, south of Sheffield and north of London. Tupton, Clay Cross, Grass ...

; the reservoir now supplies water for the local area and is used as a holding ground for water for nearby Carsington Reservoir. The reservoir covers 200 acres (800,000 m²) and holds 1.3 billion imperial gallons (5.9 billion litres) of water. The valley was flooded in 1958 and completely submerged farmland, roads and part of the

Ashover Light Railway The Ashover Light Railway was a narrow gauge railway in Derbyshire, England that connected Clay Cross and Ashover. It was built by the Clay Cross Company to transport minerals such as limestone, fluorite, barytes and gritstone to its works ...

. The reservoir also destroyed most of the village of Woolley, including the Woolley House Hydro, the village store, the blacksmiths, the joiners, the laundry, the

sheep dip Sheep dip is a liquid formulation of insecticide and fungicide which shepherds and farmers use to protect their sheep from infestation against external parasites such as itch mite (''Psoroptes ovis''), blow-fly, ticks and lice. History Sheep ...

and 'Napoleons Home', the local public house. The villagers were relocated into council houses built in another local hamlet, Badger Lane, which eventually became known as the village of Woolley on the Moor, which subsequently became the present village of

Woolley Moor Woolley Moor is a small village in the North East Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England. Its amenities include a school, a church and a public house called the White Horse. Almost all of the villagers work outside the village although th ...

. The reservoir provides many leisure activities including

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

and trout-fishing. It is especially well known for its bird-life and over 200 species have been recorded at Ogston including

Wilson's phalarope Wilson's phalarope (''Phalaropus tricolor'') is a small wader. This bird, the largest of the phalaropes, breeds in the prairies of North America in western Canada and the western United States. It is migratory, wintering in inland salt lakes nea ...

Sabine's gull Sabine's gull ( ) (''Xema sabini'') also known as the fork-tailed gull or xeme, is a small gull. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Xema''. It breeds in colonies on coasts and tundra, laying two or three spotted olive-brown eggs in a gr ...

and

long-tailed skua The long-tailed skua or long-tailed jaeger (''Stercorarius longicaudus'') is a seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. Etymology The word "jaeger" is derived from the German word ''Jäger'', meaning "hunter". The English word "skua" comes fr ...

Ellen MacArthur Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur (born 8 July 1976) is a retired English sailor, from Whatstandwell near Matlock in Derbyshire, now based in Cowes, Isle of Wight. MacArthur is a successful solo long-distance yachtswoman. On 7 February 2005, ...

, best known as a solo long-distance yachtswoman who, on February 7, 2005, broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe, trained to become a yachtswoman on Ogston Reservoir. This article was prepared using information found on the website of the 'Woolley Trail', maintained by the local primary school.Stretton Handley school
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References

{{authority control Reservoirs in Derbyshire Reservoirs of the Peak District Drinking water reservoirs in England Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Derbyshire