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Home » Health, Welfare and Charity » Public health » Elan Valley reservoir

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Aerial photograph of Craig Goch Dam and reservoir, Elan Valley, 1992
  • The following illustrations by Richard Eustace Tickell are taken from the volume 'The Vale of Nantgwilt - A Submerged Valley' (1894). Eustace Tickell was the civil engineer who supervised the construction of the Pen-y-garreg dam which formed part of the Elan Valley waterworks scheme of 1892. In his introduction, Tickell gave the following reasons for publishing the volume: 'The object of this book is to commemorate scenes in one of the most charming valleys in Great Britain. Scenes which are soon to be lost for ever, submerged beneath the waters of a series of lakes, which, by a colossal engineering undertaking, are about to be constructed for the purpose of supplying water to the city of Birmingham, nearly eighty miles away. The Vale of Nantgwilt lies at the junction of the rivers Elan and Claerwen on the borders of Radnor and Brecon, to the west of the Wye, into which the Elan falls near the little market town of Rhayader. In this neighbourhood upwards of 45,000 acres of land have been acquired by the Corporation of Birmingham under Act of Parliament ...'
Richard Eustace Tickell, 'The Vale of Nantgwilt: a submerged valley ...' (1894), frontispiece [image 1 of 14]
  • The tiny parish church at Nantgwyllt was one of the buildings lost to the huge Elan Valley waterworks scheme in the 1890s. The poet Shelley had worshipped here during his visits to the district in 1812. This photograph records part of the lost valley before it was flooded by the completion of Caban Coch dam. Temporary wooden huts used as site offices by the dambuilders lie beyond the trees.
The old church at Nantgwyllt, Elan Valley, c.1895
  • A view along the winding road beside the rock strewn bed of the Elan river. This photograph shows the landscape to be lost with the flooding of the valley under the huge Birmingham City Council waterworks scheme started in 1893.
Elan Valley before the waterworks scheme, 1890s
  • Cwm Elan house, like Nant Gwyllt in the neighbouring valley, was sited too close to the river to escape the flooding of the area under the huge Birmingham waterworks scheme of the 1890s. The poet Shelley had stayed in both houses in 1812 and was strongly drawn by the wildness of the area.
Cwm Elan House, lost to the Elan Valley dams scheme, c. 1897
  • An early stage in the construction of the first of the dams to be built in the Elan Valley, Caban coch. A view looking upstream on the River Elan probably photographed around 1895, with a huge steam-powered crane at work on the site. Many of the massive stones used for this dam were quarried nearby.
Dam building in the Elan Valley, c. 1895