Description:Derwentwater, Windermere, Loch Lomond. When the names of Britain’s great lakes are mentioned, Rotton park reservoir can be forgiven for having something of an inferiority complex.
The name itself, medieval though it may be, is hardly conducive to romantic visions. Hence the decision to revert to one of its other names: Edgbaston Reservoir.
Many were the fair fish that once swam in its waters, when it was a fish pond in one of the parks of the lord of Birmingham. But the weeds got the better of it, as they did of the manorial lord himself. And in the 19th century, the pool was no longer feeding the local people, but the local canal instead.
Still as the largest stretch of water near the city centre, it has often attracted the developers as well as the conservationists. At the turn of the (20th) century there was talk of turning it into Birmingham’s Chacewater, a venue for aquatic sports and tall ship races. It even provided a temporary port of call for the first flying boat to be seen in the city.
But of all the activity suggested and attempted on Edgbaston Reservoir, to Monsieur Blondin goes the credit for the idea of walking across it. None of the many prime ministers to have visited Birmingham over the years has tried that one.
(image is of the advert in the Birmingham Gazette for Blondin's appearance at the Reservoir)