Derwent Valley and Dams
While up in the Peak District we wanted to see the dams in the Derwent Valley as one of these was used in 1943 for 617 Squadron to practise their low level flying in preparation for delivery of the Barnes Wallis bouncing bombs on to the German dams.
Although the weather wasn't great we had a great day walking and playing in the river in The Derwent Valley.
The River Derwent
There are 3 dams; Howden, Derwent and Ladybower. You can drive along the sides of the reservoirs to where the water feeds in from the River Derwent. This picture was taken at the point just before it enters the first reservoir.
Jess enjoying the river
The footpath here goes right along the river so it seemed like a good place to let Jess have a play.
The River Derwent
This is the river just passing under the bridge before it enters the first reservoir.
Sun through the trees
As we were about to go back to the car the sun came out for a short time, here you can see how pretty this place is.... What a fab time we had here playing in the river and woods.
Howden Dam
This is Howden Dam which was the first to be built and work started in 1901, soon after work started on the second Dam called Derwent. Both Dams were complete in 1916. While the dams were being built there were gangs of men working on them so they constructed a village which was called Birchinlee or Tin Town, as it was known as all the buildings were wooden structure and corrugated sheets. Here you would find the men who worked on the dams and their families would also live with them. By 1903 it was recorded that 600 people were living there and in 1910 it was 901. In the village they had their own school, Police station, sweet shop and its own hospital. By 1916 the work on the dams had finished and Tin Town was no more.
Derwent Dam
This also has some interesting history, built at the seem time as Howden Dam by the men who lived in Tin Town village but in 1943 it was used for 617 squadron to practise low level flying. This was in preparation for the delivery of the Barnes Wallis bouncing bombs onto the German dams. On May 16th 2008 there was a 65th Anniversary Memorial Service which sadly we were not there to see but seeing pictures of the day on the internet I would of loved to have been there.
The 617 Dambuster Squadron Memorial
This is the memorial to the men of 617 squardron, it is located in the gatehouse of the western tower of Derwent Dam. Sadly the gatehouse wasn't open so this was the best picture I could get of it but it says:
"The stone erected by public suscription to the gallant men of 617 SQD R.A.F who successfully breached the dams of Wertern Germany in World War II using the boucing bomb devised by Dr Barnes Wallis. Derwent Dam was choosen because of its resemblance to the German dams for intensive low level practise and bomb aiming techniques".
The third dam called Ladybower was built later in 1935, for this they had to flood two villages called Derwent village and Ashopton village. Both these villages were lived in until the 1940's and now sadly you can see nothing of them, when the reservoirs are low then some ruins can still be seen.
There is alot of history about the dams and the surrounding area, I have enjoyed looking into the history of this interesting place where so much has gone on.