Design and Construction
Ladybower was built between 1935 and 1943 by the Derwent Valley Water Board, and took a further two years to fill (1945). The dam differs from the other two as it is a clay-cored earth embankment, and not a solid masonry dam like the others. Below the dam is a cut-off trench 180 feet (55 m) deep and 6 feet (1.8 m) wide filled with concrete, stretching 500 feet (150 m) into the hills each side, to stop water leaking round the dam. The building of the dam wall was undertaken by the Scottish company of Richard Baillie and Sons. The two viaducts, Ashopton and Ladybower, needed to carry the trunk roads over the reservoir were built by the London firm of Holloways, using a steel frame clad in concrete. Both firms encountered mounting problems when the Second World War broke out in 1939 making labour and raw materials scarce. This extended the proposed build time, but the construction was carried on due to the strategic importance of maintaining supplies. The opening ceremony for the reservoir was carried out on Tuesday 25 September 1945 by King George VI accompanied by the future Queen Elizabeth.
During the 1990s the wall was raised and strengthened to reduce the risk of 'over-topping' in a major flood. The original dam wall contains 100,000 tons of concrete, over one million tons of earth and 100,000 tons of clay for the core, the upstream face being stone faced. Materials were brought in via the Derwent Valley Water Board's own branch line to the site and their sidings off the main line in the Hope Valley.
The dam's design is peculiar in having two totally enclosed bellmouth overflows (locally named the 'plugholes') at the side of the wall. These are stone and of 80 feet (24 m) diameter with outlets of 15 feet (4.6 m) diameter that each discharges via its own valve house at the base of the dam. The overflows originally had walkways around them but they were dismantled many years ago. The bell mouths are often completely out of the water and only rarely submerged, often after heavy rainfall or flooding.
Read more about this topic: Ladybower Reservoir
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