Huddersfield A-Z: Digley Reservoir

D is for dire, dreadful and dreary weather and a daft dog. And also for a determined Blipper who wasn't going to be foiled by either.

Huddersfield is surrounded by reservoirs, and this is my favourite. Built in the 1940s to provide 3 million gallons of water a day to the Huddersfield area, it was an extension to the existing Victorian Bilberry reservoir. The embankment at Bilberry, (on which I was standing to take this shot) collapsed in 1852, releasing 86 million gallons of water into the Holme Valley, killing 81 people and destroying homes and businesses. Thankfully it was subsequently strengthened!!

I was dithering about which shot to choose - there was this one - which is looking back over Bilberry reservoir so not strictly a "D", or this one which is Digley's overflow (or glory hole as I like to call it) - I find the idea of the steps going down into oblivion quite nightmarish. I settled on this one as I think the featureless sky gives it an ethereal quality.

Try it LARGE

On arriving at the car park, Lizzie Dog spotted a little lamb gambolling about near the car and that was that, no way was she getting out of the car. I endured umpteen jokes from hikers about dogs normally scaring sheep rather than the other way round, until after about 15 minutes of me trying various tactics (ignoring her worked), she jumped out and had the time of her life jumping in streams, scrambling down banks and sniffing for England.

I can't imagine not marking the passing of Ray Manzarek, whose music was such a big part of my teenage years, and whose keyboard playing was mind-blowing. So it's not relevant to the shot, but this clip has SO many things going for it....