Wessenden Valley

53°35′10″N 1°55′44″W / 53.586°N 1.929°W / 53.586; -1.929

Blakeley (foreground) and Butterley Reservoirs, May 2005

The Wessenden Valley is a moorland valley in the Dark Peak, immediately south of Marsden in West Yorkshire, England.^[1] The name Wessenden derives from Old English and means the 'valley with rock suitable for whetstones'.^[2] The valley was formed by retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age and continues to be cut by the Wessenden Brook a tributary of the River Colne with a catchment of 6.28 square miles (16.27 km²).^[3]

The valley is in the Marsden Moor Estate and occupied by four reservoirs, namely Wessenden Head, Wessenden, Blakeley and Butterley,^[4] the largest. The Kirklees Way and Pennine Way long-distance footpaths follow the valley.^[5] The upper part of the valley near Wessenden Head is managed by the National Trust as part of the 5,000-acre (2,000 ha) Marsden Moor Estate.^[6]

Butterley Reservoir's spillway, the only one of its kind in England, was a Grade II Listed structure^[7] until Yorkshire Water renovated it using concrete after winning a case on appeal.

References

1. "OL21" (Map). South Pennines (A2 ed.). 1:25,000. Explorer Map. Ordnance Survey. 2008. ISBN 978-0-319-24012-0.
2. Smith, A H (1961). The place-names of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Part 2, Osgoldcross and Agbrigg wapentakes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 277. OCLC 181782059.
3. "Wessenden Brook from Butterly Reservoir[sic] to River Coln[sic]". Environment Agency. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
4. "Save Butterley Spillway". spillway.co.uk. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
5. "110" (Map). Sheffield & Huddersfield (C1 ed.). 1:50,000. Landranger. Ordnance Survey. 2014. ISBN 978-0-319-22840-1.
6. "Marsden Moor Overview". National Trust. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
7. Robinson, Andrew (9 January 2014). "Campaigners win battle to save unique Butterley Reservoir in Huddersfield". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 21 December 2016.