Claerwen
| Claerwen Reservoir | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Claerwen Reservoir | |
| Location | Wales |
| Coordinates | 52°16′20″N3°41′20″W/ 52.27222°N 3.68889°W |
| Type | Reservoir |
| Basincountries | United Kingdom |
| Surface area | 3.688 km2(1.424 sq mi) |
TheClaerwenreservoiranddaminPowys,Wales,were the last additions to theElan Valley Reservoirssystem built to provide water for the increasing water demand of the city ofBirminghamand theWest Midlands.The dam is built mainly ofconcrete,with the exterior dam face indressed stone.The dam is agravity dambuilt upon solid rock foundations as the pressure of the reservoir behind should be in equilibrium with the total weight of the dam itself thus causing complete stability.[citation needed]
The Claerwen dam was finished in 1952 and was given a late Victorian effect so that it blended in with the earlier dams in the valley. It was necessary to employ the services ofItalianstonemasonsas British ones were still at work inLondonduring the post-war rebuilding process of the late 1940s.
The dam took six years to complete and was almost twice the size of the other dams in the Elan valley. The Claerwen reservoir is almost the size of all the other reservoirs in the Elan Valley system combined. Officially commissioned byQueen Elizabeth IIin 1952, it was one of her first royal engagements as monarch.
Water from the reservoir flows via an underground aqueduct to the Caban-coch reservoir from which it is abstracted through a gravity aqueduct to Birmingham.[1]
Statistics
[edit]- Height: 56 m (184 ft)
- Length: 355 m (1,165 ft)
- Building material: primarilyconcrete
- Capacity: 48,300,300 m3(1.06246×1010imp gal)
Some idea of what was involved in the building of the dam is given by the quantities[2]of materials used. Approximately 1 ¼ million bricks, half a million tons of crushed stone, 200,000 tons of sand, 70,000 tons of cement and 18,500 tons of masonry had to be transported to the site, and an electricity generating station with a capacity of 1,500 h.p. was installed to provide power to operate the plant. Stone for concrete was obtained from a quarry about three miles away. Most of the sand was obtained from the Severn Valley, a distance of over 70 miles by road, and the low heat Portland cement used was made at Aberthaw in South Wales, taken to Rhayader Station by train in specially made containers, and carried to the site by a fleet of lorries. About 370 men were employed in building the dam. The contractors, Edmund Nuttall, Sons and Co. (London) Ltd., provided a temporary camp for 200 of them, with bungalows for members of the staff. This was about seven miles away and outside the catchment area. Others were accommodated in Rhayader. Local men were among those who took part in the work, and they were transported to the site daily in coaches, in some cases from a distance of 40 miles.
Claerwen National Nature Reserve
[edit]ClaerwenNational Nature Reserveis an expanse of mountainuplandlying halfway betweenRhayaderinPowysandPontrhydfendigaidinCeredigion.The mainlypeatyandacidic soilprovides an environment home for many species of plants and animals which thrive in these conditions. Thesebiomesinclude several highlyoligotrophiclakes and ponds, raisedmiresand large areas that have seen little or any man-made changes. These include the nationally scarce water plantain (Luronium natans) as well as carnivorous plants such asDrosera rotundifolia,andbutterworts.[3]It is a known breeding site forred kiteandmerlin.
In popular culture
[edit]In 2015 the dam was featured in the fourth episode of series twenty-two of theBBCmotoring programmeTop Gear.During the episodeRichard Hammondwinched aLand Rover Seriesup to the top of the dam, and down again, in mimicry of an advert once used for the vehicle, during a tribute segment for theLand Rover Defender.
References
[edit]- ^Brown, David Lewis (27 September 2023).Elan Valley Clearance.Logaston Press.ISBN978-1-910839-36-2.
- ^"Britain's Largest Dam", Meccano Magazine January 1953
- ^"Claerwen National Nature Reserve, Elan Valley Estate, Powys, East Wales".First Nature.Retrieved3 September2020.