The Village Beneath The Dam

[Ousetunes 10]

The old village is under the Ladybower Reservoir and thats almost full.

 

Kind of.

 

Ashopton Village lies directly beneath the A57 Ashopton viaduct. There are pictures of the deserted village with the newly completed bridge rising high above it. To the best of my knowledge, the waters of Ladybower Reservoir have never been low enough to expose the ruins of this village.

 

However, the waters don't have to drop too low before the ruins of Derwent village are exposed (which is up toward Derwent Wall). There is a stone building near the road that is always the first remain to be exposed when the waters drop. The ruins of Derwent Hall and the church (the pile of debris from the blown-up church tower), the actual course of the river and various other buildings are easy to trace during a drought.

 

I recall seeing them in 1976, 1989 and in 1995/6, during the last of which the water was so low that one could literally walk down the road of Derwent village.

[cat631 10]

Hello Ousetunes. Kind of what?

[mahonia 10]

If you are waiting to see if any of the old villge ruins are exposed, i have to say Don't hold your breath .

 

The last time the village was exposed was 1995, I think:confused:

[Patrick316 10]

Kind of.

 

Ashopton Village lies directly beneath the A57 Ashopton viaduct. There are pictures of the deserted village with the newly completed bridge rising high above it. To the best of my knowledge, the waters of Ladybower Reservoir have never been low enough to expose the ruins of this village.

 

Hi

 

Just to follow on from Ousetunes thread..

 

As Ousetunes stated - Ashopton is situated by the viaduct over Ladybower - at the eastern (Sheffield) end and on the south side of the viaduct.

 

At the time that Ladybower was filled the water was about 135ft deep at the point where the cente of the village was situated. Over the years this has probably become slightly shallower due to silt being laid down. I remember reading in a book that the ruins of Ashopton - unlike Derwent - are now completely covered by silt and will never become visible. The only way that the ruins will ever be seen again is if Ladybower is completely drained and exacavated.

 

I think the prospect of that ever happening is highly unlikely .

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[simonj 10]

Just to put the recent posts from Ousetunes and Patrick into pictures here is the link I posted earlier in this thread:

 

http://www.motorsportfotos.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=162

[lubylou 10]

Just to put the recent posts from Ousetunes and Patrick into pictures here is the link I posted earlier in this thread:

 

http://www.motorsportfotos.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=162

 

I find that picture very eerie, but fascinating

[Patrick316 10]

Just to put the recent posts from Ousetunes and Patrick into pictures here is the link I posted earlier in this thread:

 

http://www.motorsportfotos.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=162

 

Hi SimonJ

 

Good pictures!

 

I too have the book - The Silent Valley. I brought it that last time I was up there in 1989.

 

Very good book for anyone interested in this thread.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[societygirl 10]

My neighbour in Baslow used to be the post mistress of Ashopton - her name was Ellen Thorpe. She was a fascinating person who had seen so many changes in her lifetime. She used to have to take the telegrammessages by bicycle as so few houses had telephones in those days, and there were few cars. She showed me an exercise book that her son had completed whilst at the Ashopton village school. The class had been tasked with completing an account of the flooding of their village, and the exercise book contained newspaper cuttings from the Sheffield Star etc. Amazing read, I wonder if her son still has the book safe following her death in about 1995 whilst in her nineties. I believe that the wrought iron gates from Derwent Hall were bought as salvage by the Shepley family [shepley Spitfire] and were fitted to their home at Woodthorpe Hall, Holmsfield.

[Deebles 10]

I remember the water levels dropping and seeing the village ruins exposed as late as 2002. I know this because we took our son who was born in 1999 and he must have been around 3 years old at the time. There wasn't that much to see then just a few boundaries/foundations etc of the buildings and the garden walls.

[milted 10]

The location of Ashopton If you pass the Laydybower Inn on your right hand side and carry on down to the Traffic lights,instead of turning left for Bamford the old road used to continue on down hill and ran straight into Ashopton It did when I was last in Ashopton,1935

[djelibeybi 10]

I went up to Derwent Valley this afternoon.

 

All three reservoirs were very full, but only Howden was going over the wall (and that had happened within a couple of hours of me arriving).

 

I wandered around up at the head of Howden, up to Slippery Stones, back to King's Tree. Then I parked up at Birchinlee and had a good look round, taking photos. I was dead chuffed to find the exact (ho, ho) location of the Post Office (across the road and on the first earth terrace from the Derwent Canteen cellar). My great grandmother (Alice Maria Blagg) was assistant to the Post Mistress there when she was a lass.

 

Have a look at my WebShots page: Djelibeybi's Derwent Valley photos

[Yerman 10]

Part of my family used to live at Derwent and my gradnmother used to tell many a tale of life there when she visited her relations. From what I understand there were a number of closely knit families who lived in the valley.

 

Near Fairhomes there is a memorial to a sheepdog which stayed with its dead master for 16 weeks one winter. The shepherd concerned was a distant relative of mine. Are there any others on here who are related to families from the valley?