Wessenden Valley

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

Wessenden Valley
Geography
CountryEngland
Coordinates53°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.

  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.