Roadford Lake, also known as Roadford Reservoir is a man-made reservoir fed by the

River Wolf The River Wolf is a minor river in the west of the county of Devon in England. Its name may come from a Celtic or earlier name recorded by the Roman map-maker Ptolemy (Ptolemy II 3 13) as Ουολιβα (Voliba) as a town of the Dumnonii (it m ...

. It is located to the north-east of

Broadwoodwidger Broadwoodwidger is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 548. The village is just to the north of the A30 road, and is about eight miles east of Launceston in ...

in West

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, eight miles (13 km) east of Launceston and is the largest area of fresh water in the southwest of England. Operated by

South West Water South West Water provides drinking water and waste water services throughout Devon and Cornwall and in small areas of Dorset and Somerset. South West Water was created in 1989 with the privatisation of the water industry. It was preceded by the ...

, it directly supplies water for North Devon. It also supplies Plymouth and southwest Devon via releases into the

River Tamar The Tamar (; kw, Dowr Tamar) is a river in south west England, that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A part of the Tamar Valley is a World Heritage Site due to its historic mining activities. T ...

for

abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or "concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstr ...

Gunnislake Gunnislake ( kw, Dowrgonna) is a large village in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the Tamar Valley approximately ten miles (16 km) north of Plymouth Gunnislake is in the civil parish of Calstock and is close to C ...

. It is a Local Nature Reserve. The creation of the reservoir in 1989 permitted extensive archaeological research to be undertaken in the valley of the River Wolf led by Professor

Mick Aston Michael Antony Aston (1 July 1946 – 24 June 2013) was an English archaeologist who specialised in Early Medieval landscape archaeology. Over the course of his career, he lectured at both the University of Bristol and University of Oxford and ...

of Bristol University and documented by the

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service i ...

documentary series ''

Time Signs ''Time Signs'' is a British television series that aired on Channel 4 in 1991. Presented by Mick Aston, the series tells the story of a Devon valley throughout history. Phil Harding does some reconstruction archaeology. The series was narrated ...

''. In 2008 South West Water received planning permission to build a 100-bed holiday village beside the lake.

Facilities

* Brown Trout fishing * Lakeside Cafe * Activities: ** Sailing ** Rowing ** Kayaking ** Windsurfing ** Canadian Canoes ** High Ropes Course ** Outdoor Archery Range ** Indoor Climbing wall **

Raft building A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barre ...

* Footpath walks through mature forests/woodland * Cycleway through mature forests/woodland * Adjacent campsite The facilities are managed by South West Lakes Trust, a registered charity.

Incidents

On 9 June 2022, two adults with disabilities died when the motorboat they were travelling in capsized on the lake.

References

External links

*https://www.swlakestrust.org.uk/roadford-lake *https://rlsc.webnode.co.uk/ *https://www.bristolnomads.org.uk/trip_reports/roadford_2000.php Reservoirs in Devon Local Nature Reserves in Devon {{Devon-geo-stub