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Construction of the new Sheffield-Manchester highway. ( somewhere in Derbyshire ) ??


syrup

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I have found this article with Photo in a 1939 Newspaper which i would think is referring to the  Derwent Valley but the Reporter is a bit vague.

Sheffield Daily Telegraph 16 November 1939.

 

  

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Presumably the press had been told not to divulge place names as WW2 was only a couple of months old. I remember being taken in an Aunt's Morris 8 around this time to see the construction works and  still recall looking up at those MASSIVE pillars. It took a further four years to finish and fill the reservoir although the formal opening ceremony wasn't until September 1945 by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

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When I was a small boy my parents took me to Ladybower to walk amongst the remains of Ashopton, which had been drowned when the reservoir was filled; a very dry summer had lowered the water level and exposed the village. I would guess that this was late 1950s.

But I don't recall a viaduct towering over it; had it been demolished? Was it not actually at Ashopton but some distance away? Or is it simply that I have forgotten it?

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10 minutes ago, Athy said:

When I was a small boy my parents took me to Ladybower to walk amongst the remains of Ashopton, which had been drowned when the reservoir was filled; a very dry summer had lowered the water level and exposed the village. I would guess that this was late 1950s.

But I don't recall a viaduct towering over it; had it been demolished? Was it not actually at Ashopton but some distance away? Or is it simply that I have forgotten it?

I don't think the water level has ever drpped low enough to reveal Ashopton, my thoughts are that it was the remains of Derwent Village that you saw.

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Yes, Steve, thanks, I think you are probably right, and that my parents thought that it was Ashopton. I wonder if there was any particular year when the water level dropped so low that Derwent's remains were revealed? I can remember other people as well as us wandering about there.

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

Yes, Steve, thanks, I think you are probably right, and that my parents thought that it was Ashopton. I wonder if there was any particular year when the water level dropped so low that Derwent's remains were revealed? I can remember other people as well as us wandering about there.

1959 it says here ... http://www.peakdistrictinformation.com/visits/derwentdams.php

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Thank you, Steve. Yes, that would fit my memory - I was still at Gleadless County School at that time, and I do remember that it was a good summer (if only because it was the year that my parents took me on hols to Brittany for the first time, little suspecting that they were planting the seeds of a lifelong love of France).

When I got back to school I got permission from my form teacher, Mr. Iossen, to write the story of our French trip instead of doing the normal weekly English compositions. I think it extended to six weekly episodes, andi t must have bored the ass off the poor man.

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It was a particularly hot dry Summer in 1959 countrywide and there were concerns about the safety of persons exploring the remains at Derwent. I know the church spire was demolished though whether it was that year I'm not sure. A weekend bus service (47) was a very popular attraction and was still operating in the 70's and many car owners visited as far as the Howden Dam.

A map I saw showed a restriction on the use of the road at certain times so maybe its status from the junction with the A57 could be Private? 

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On 04/01/2017 at 12:19, Athy said:

Yes, Steve, thanks, I think you are probably right, and that my parents thought that it was Ashopton. I wonder if there was any particular year when the water level dropped so low that Derwent's remains were revealed? I can remember other people as well as us wandering about there.

Hia, I remember when my daughter was 9 in the 1980s, walking down the inner bankside of the 'Dried out Reservoir' covered in greenery, walking round the remains of Derwent Village, and sitting on a stone wall, even the little bridge at the very bottom had a trickle of water running through. Then you look further down and see the towering Viaduct. It was a weird experience.

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