Agden Reservoir

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Agden Reservoir
With the 30-metre dam wall. View from High Bradfield
Location	Yorkshire
Coordinates	53.42865° N 1.61017° WCoordinates: 53.42865° N 1.61017° W
Lake type	reservoir
Basin countries	United Kingdom
Surface area	25 ha

Agden Reservoir is a water storage reservoir, situated at grid reference SK260925, 10 kilometres west of the English city of Sheffield. It is owned by Yorkshire Water which is part of the Kelda Group. The reservoir covers an area of 25 hectares and has a capacity of 559 million gallons (2.11x10⁹ litres) of water, the dam wall has a width of approximately 350 metres with a height of 30 metres.^[1]

The reservoir is one of four which were built in the second half of the nineteenth century to collect water from the moorlands around the village of Low Bradfield, west of Sheffield, the other three being Damflask, Dale Dike and Strines reservoirs. Agden was completed in 1869 and is fed by Hobson Moss Dike and Emlin Dike which flow off the Broomhead and Bradfield moors respectively. The reservoir is surrounded mainly by coniferous woodland, however, Sheffield City Council who own much of the woodland have started a policy of replanting and thinning to encourage broadleaved varieties of trees which give a better habitat for wildlife and also look more attractive.

The reservoir is ringed by a popular 3.5 mile (5.5 kilometre) walk which starts in the village of Low Bradfield and takes in Agden Bog which is a protected wetland area managed by Sheffield Wildlife Action Partnership on behalf of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The reservoir used to have a keepers cottage at the western side of the dam wall, however this is now a private dwelling. There are the remains of several old buildings around the reservoir, Agden House was a farmhouse on the western side which was demolished in the 1970s, Rocher Head farm was demolished in the early 1960s while Frost House was pulled down in the 1950s.^[2]

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