Geograph - photograph every grid square

A warm July evening. Looking west along Ladybower Reservoir from the A6013 near Bamford, towards Ashopton Viaduct on the A57 Snake Pass road.

Ladybower Reservoir is a large Y-shaped reservoir and is the lowest of three in the upper Derwent Valley. The River Ashop flows into Ladybower Reservoir from the west and the River Derwent from the north. The River Derwent supplies water to both of the upper Reservoirs, Howden and Derwent, which in turn supplies Ladybower with water.

Severn Trent Water Board funded the set up of the fishery and the fish rearing facilities, which are still in place today. The main stock for fishing in the reservoir is locally bred trout.

The Derwent valley also played an important role in the Second World War. It saw the development of the ‘bouncing bomb’ which was deployed by 617 squadron using Lancaster Bombers.