The River Kinder ( ) is a small river, only about long, in northwestern

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 ...

, England. Rising on the peat moorland plateau of

Kinder Scout Kinder Scout is a moorland plateau and national nature reserve in the Dark Peak of the Derbyshire Peak District in England. Part of the moor, at above sea level, is the highest point in the Peak District, in Derbyshire and the East Midlands; t ...

, it flows generally westwards to its confluence with the

River Sett The River Sett is a river that flows through the High Peak borough of Derbyshire, in north western England. It rises near Edale Cross on Kinder Scout and flows through the villages of Hayfield and Birch Vale to join the River Goyt at New Mi ...

at Bowden Bridge (a Grade II listed

packhorse bridge A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low parapets so ...

). En route it flows through the Kinder Gates rocks, over the waterfall known as Kinder Downfall, and through Kinder Reservoir, built in 1903–12 by the

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is withi ...

Corporation Water Works. Until the 19th century at least, the name was formerly also applied to the River Sett as far as its confluence with the

River Goyt The River Goyt is a tributary of the River Mersey in North West England. Etymology The name ''Goyt'' may be derived from the Middle English ''gote'', meaning "a watercourse, a stream". Derivation from the Welsh ''gwyth'' meaning "vein" has bee ...

New Mills New Mills is a town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England, south-east of Stockport and from Manchester at the confluence of the River Goyt and Sett. It is close to the border with Cheshire and above the Torrs, a deep gorge cut t ...

Kinder Downfall

Kinder Downfall is the tallest

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

in the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, 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, whe ...

, with a fall. The waterfall was formerly known as ''Kinder Scut'', and it is from this that the plateau derives its name. Although usually little more than a trickle in summer, in spate conditions it is impressive. In certain wind conditions (notably when there is a strong west wind), the water is blown back on itself, and the resulting cloud of spray can be seen from several miles away. The

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

crosses the River Kinder above Kinder Downfall. When frozen in hard winters, the waterfall is a venue for ice-climbing, and it is also the highlight of a fell race that bears its name.

Kinder Reservoir

Stockport Corporation took over Stockport and District Waterworks Company in 1899 and immediately started investigating potential new water supplies. James Mansergh, consulting engineer, identified a site above Hayfield. Abram Kellett of Ealing was contracted to build a masonry dam and a standard gauge railway to convey materials and workers to the site (though some navvies and their families lived in temporary huts built a short distance down the valley). Two farms were demolished during the construction. Work started in 1903 but geological difficulties prompted suspension of construction in 1905 and eventually a change in design to a clay/earth dam. Stockport Corporation and the original contractor (Kelletts) resorted to the courts over financial issues and the Corporation's unilateral termination of the contract. Construction eventually resumed in 1908, under the supervision of G H Hill and Sons. The opening ceremony was held on 11 July 1912. Kinder Reservoir has a capacity of approximately and a surface area of . The adjacent filter house was decommissioned in 1996, following the opening of the new Wybersley Water Treatment Works at High Lane, near Stockport, to which the reservoir's water is now piped for treatment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinder Rivers of Derbyshire Rivers and valleys of the Peak District 2Kinder High Peak, Derbyshire

Kinder Downfall

Kinder Reservoir

See also

References