Birchinlee

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Birchinlee village marker

Birchinlee was a temporary hamlet in the Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, England, on the western shore of Derwent Reservoir.

It is the site of "Tin Town", a village built for the workers (and their families) who constructed the Derwent and Howden Dams between 1902 and 1916. Most of the workers had previously been engaged in the construction, in Wales, of the Elan Valley Reservoirs where the accommodation was very basic. At Birchinlee, a "model village" was built; its infrastructure included hospitals, school, canteen (pub), post office, shops, recreation hall, public bath house, police station, railway station, rubbish dump with incinerator, and much else. One of the shops was a well stocked store owned by the Gregory Brothers from Tideswell. Accommodation consisted of workmen's huts, foremen's huts and married workmen's huts. The latter were decorated to a high standard, as photographs from the period confirm. The population rose to 900 people.

Remnants of "Tin Town" can still be seen when walking to the west of Derwent Reservoir. The former railway track is now a footpath.

A number of books and resources charting the history of Birchinlee and the dambuilders have been written by Professor Brian Robinson and Doctor Bill Beven, Peak District National Park archaeologist.^[1]