It is known as the place where Bill Oddie did much of his early birdwatching, and features in his books (notably Bill Oddie's Gone Birding) and television programmes. His first ever published article, for the West Midland Bird Club's annual report, was about the birds of the reservoir.
History
Most of the land occupied by Bartley Reservoir was in the parish of Northfield, originally in Worcestershire. It was transferred to Warwickshire when Northfield became part of Birmingham in November, 1911.
However, the south-west end of the reservoir overlapped into the parish of Frankley, in Worcestershire (Hereford and Worcester, from 1974). In April 1995 part of Frankley (including the south-west part of Bartley Reservoir) was transferred to Birmingham and became part of the West Midlands county.
External links
West Midland Bird Club page on Bartley Reservoir (http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/westmidlands/bartley.htm)
Bartley Reservoir article by Bill Oddie, from West Midlands Bird Club's archive (http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/archive/bartley-62.htm)
The reservoir was made by putting a bank across the lower end of the valley, and there was a certain amount of excavation round the edges to level the contours and make a proper bank.
For record purposes the reservoir may be considered to be in Warwickshire as being part of the City of Birmingham, but as a matter of fact, a small piece of the Frankley end is in Worcestershire [3].
Waders are not often to be seen at Bartley as there is no suitable accommodation and when they have appeared there has been either a low water level exposing the concrete at the bottom of the bank or a fringe of ice round the edge.
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