The Flooded Villages of Derwent, Ashopton and Birchinlee

At the bottom of the village, flowing right down the valley, was the River Derwent, and if you crossed it by the ford or by an old Pack-Horse Bridge, you reached Bridge-End Farm. In later years, beside Bridge-End Farm was built a typical stone water Valve House with distinctive stone roof. Although it was disused, the Valve House still stands.

Situated away from the village, and with its own Roman Catholic chapel, stood the magnificent Jacobean Derwent Hall which was built in 1672. Derwent Hall had its own lake and large ornament gardens. Some relics from Derwent Hall can be found in the museum. At a distance, further up the banks of the Derwent and at the end of open parkland, were Hall’s kitchen gardens, the site of which can still be seen. Nearby they stood the Waterhouses, a row of cottages.

Apart from the Valve House, Pack-Horse Bridge (removed to Slippery Stones above the head of Howden Dam) and the vicarage (later demolished because it stood too near the edge of the water), the whole of Derwent Village was demolished before the waters rose to engulf it in the mid-1940 ′s.

Stand today beside the car park at Bridge-End, overlooking the Derwent Valley, and you can still see signs of the village. To get your bearings, first look left, north up the valley and note the pipe bridge which carries the aqueduct taking water from the valley to the filter plant at Bamford. Just this side of the bridge, and on the far side of the river, are the ruins of the Water-houses, below which can be seen the outlines of Hall’s kitchen garden. Then let your imagination carry you across the open park where many a cricket match was played – and through the iron gates, past stables and outbuildings to Derwent Hall.

Almost opposite Bridge-End car park, but a little to your left and on the far side of the valley, the solid ruins of Derwent Hall are plain to see. Two items of masonry will help identify it, for at the north-west corner stands a large carved seat, a little like a hat, which was very popular with courting couples in the past (and as popular today for a family photo on the rare occasions that it reappears). On the east front (nearest you), there stands a solitary carved gate post. This once held an ornate wrought iron gate that led to the ornamental gardens.

Right opposite the car park and across the narrow ditch-like bed of Mill Brook are the ruins of Derwent Church, looking like two flattened piles of rubble. In amongst them still is the date stone. Of all that can still be seen at Derwent, Mill Brook is perhaps most surprising, still bringing water down from the hills and following the same line as it did before the brook was merged with the dam over 50 years ago.

Before the lower Derwent Valley was flooded in the mid-1940 ′s, most of the buildings were demolished, and much of the stone has since been used to strengthen beaches (edges) of the reservoir to reduce erosion. At Derwent Village – opposite the present Bridge End car park – the church tower was first left as a memorial but then blown up in 1947. But when the waters are down, you can still see the ruins and outlines of buildings, the lines of walls and hedges and can even stumble across the occasional dated stone or remains of a long-submerged bridge.

As the waters recede, below the church will appear the outline of the school and schoolhouse, which stood on the corner where the road from the village and the road from the Hall met to continue down to Ashopton.