Blagdon Lake
| Blagdon Lake | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Location | Blagdon, Somerset |
| Coordinates | 51°20′04″N 2°41′51″W / 51.33431°N 2.69757°WCoordinates: 51°20′04″N 2°41′51″W / 51.33431°N 2.69757°W |
| Type | reservoir |
| Primary inflows | River Yeo |
| Primary outflows | River Yeo |
| Catchment area | 2,144 hectares (5,300 acres) |
| Basin countries | United Kingdom |
| Surface area | 440 acres (180 ha) |
| Average depth | 14 ft (4.3 m) |
| Max. depth | 42 ft (13 m) |
| Water volume | 8,456 million litres (6,855 acre·ft) |
Blagdon Lake lies in a valley at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, close to the village of Blagdon and approximately 10 miles (16 km) south of Bristol, England. The lake was created by Bristol Water (Bristol Waterworks Company as it was known then), when it dammed the River Yeo, starting construction in 1898, to designs by Charles Hawksley, and completing this in 1905. The Wrington Vale Light Railway was constructed primarily to bring building materials for the lake.
The reservoir was formed by the construction of a dam and provided water to the pumping station which originally contained four Woolf compound rotative beam pumping engines, built by Glenfield & Kennedy of Kilmarnock, which have now been replaced by electric pumps. Two of the steam engines have been preserved, with one in working order as part of the visitor centre which also includes educational facilities for children. The pumping station is now a Grade II* listed building.
The 8,456,000,000-litre (1.860×109 imp gal; 2.234×109 US gal) lake still provides 9,547,000,000 litres (2.100×109 imp gal; 2.522×109 US gal) of drinking water each year, but also acts as a fishing lake. It provides a habitat for a range of flora and fauna and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The original suction tanks, which formed the water supply for the steam boilers powering the pumping engines, are now used for trout rearing.
The lake, which was originally called the Yeo reservoir, covers 440 acres (180 ha). The River Yeo rises in the centre of Compton Martin village, from there it flows past the village of Ubley and enters Blagdon Lake. From the lake the river flows south of Wrington and Iwood, where there were once a series of watermills along its banks. Its route then takes it around the northern outskirts of Congresbury, and across the North Somerset Levels roughly parallel to the A370 road, past the site of a Roman villa before crossing under the M5 motorway and emptying into the Severn Estuary in Woodspring Bay, downstream from Clevedon and west of the village of Kingston Seymour. The watershed catchment area of the reservoir is 2,144 hectares (5,300 acres).
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