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The Bittell Reservoirs are located above Barnt Green to the south of Longbridge in south Birmingham. They consist of the Upper (Upper Bittell) and Lower (Lower Bittell) reservoir. They were built to feed the Birmingham and Worcester Canal, which was finished in the 1790s, however, the reservoir was not completed until 1837. The 'Upper' reservoir is to ensure that the level of the canal is kept sufficiently high, even in times of drought. The 'Lower' reservoir(s) are compensatory reservoirs to ensure that the local area does not become parched in dry times. Barnt Green is a fairly large village south of Birmingham, in Central England (UK). ...
The Longbridge Plant from the Air, 2005. ...
This article is about the city in England. ...
The Birmingham and Worcester Canal is a canal linking Birmingham and Worcester in England. ...
Events and Trends French Revolution ( 1789 - 1799). ...
1837 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
The "Upper" reservoir can be seen as a form of insurance. A dried up, i.e. unusable, canal would have been disasterous for the owners of the canal as well as the artisans and tradesmen who relied upon it for a living. The irony of the reservoir is the length of time it took to build: only 6 years after it was finished the Birmingham & Gloucester railway was built alongside, mitigating the economic reasoning behind the large investment. Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of potential financial loss. ...
The building of a railway line from Birmingham to Gloucester was authorised by Act of Parliament in 1836. ...
The reservoirs are quite obscure nowadays, however they are used actively. Today one can fish in several places, especially on the lower reservoirs. The upper reservoir is used for sailing and windsurfing, and is the home of the Barnt Green Sailing Club. One bank of the reservoir is inaccessible due to the fact that it is a SSSI. During the early 20th century, the bird life of the reservoirs was regularly recorded by the West Midland Bird Club, long before such site-monitoring became commonplace. They were also visited regularly by a young Bill Oddie. Fishing from a Pier Fishing is a term applied to any activity which aims to capture fish or shellfish for subsistence, scientific, commercial or recreational purposes. ...
Wooden sailing boat Sailing is motion across a body of water in a sailing ship, or smaller boat, powered by wind. ...
Windsurfing in Essex, England Windsurfing (also called boardsailing) is a sport involving travel over water on a small 2-4. ...
A Site of Special Scientific Interest or SSSI is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. ...
(19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...
The West Midland Bird Club is the UKs largest regional ornithology society. ...
Bill Oddie William Edgar (Bill) Oddie, OBE, MA (Cantab. ...
External links - Barnt Green Sailing Club
- Maintenance work on Lower Bittell (with photographs)
- West Midland Bird Club report from 1935
- West Midland Bird Club report from 1938
- Map sources for Bittell Reservoirs
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