Description:In the late 19th century, due to the rapidly expanding population and problems with the outbreak of diseases, for the benefit of its inhabitants, the Corporation of Birmingham needed to find a fresh water supply. The solution was the Elan Valley reservoirs, a chain of man-made lakes created from damming the Elan and Claerwen rivers within the Elan Valley in Mid Wales. Built by the Birmingham Corporation Water Department, water from the five lakes (the Claerwen, Craig-goch, Pen-y-garreg, Garreg-ddu, and Caban-coch) was, and still is, carried by gravity along 73 miles and a drop of 52 metres to the Frankly reservoir.
Started in 1896 and completed in 1906, this series of photographic albums depict the construction of the dams and subsequent reservoirs.
These images were chosen by Stephen Hodson who, in the lead up to the move from the Central Library to the Library of Birmingham, worked in the conservation team. As part of the preparations, Stephen packaged many of the glass slides in the Library’s collection and he came across slides of Elan Valley which stood out as being very memorable indeed. Sadly due to their fragile condition the glass slides have to remain safely packaged in storage, however there are duplicates of these images in the collection of record from Severn Trent Water. A selection of these volumes are on display here.
[MS 944/A/114]