Drowned village

David Clarke’s piece on the drowned village of Derwent [ FT405:58] brought back vivid childhood memories. My grandfather O’Brien told me the story of the lost homes that sat at the bottom of the reservoir, along with the spire of the church that poked above the surface of the water in a drought, as we walked through the countryside surrounding it. I can remember him telling me with conviction, while pointing out onto the water, that he’d seen the spire himself when he was younger. He knew the local area and its history well, and on top of that was an engineer for the water board, so had worked at the reservoir in question. It’s hard to think of a more reliable source of information for my seven-yearold self. Only the reservoir in question wasn’t that of the Peak District’s Upper DerwentValley but the other Derwent Reservoir, next to Pow Hill outside of Consett in County Durham.

Until reading David Clarke’s piece, I was certain a lost village was hidden below the water there. Now, having looked into it, I can find no records of this being the case. Did my grandfather believe what he told me and what he claimed to have seen – or did he knowingly swap the site of the lost village for the sake of a good story? I thought readers would be interested in this further example of how local legends are built up and can emerge from seemingly empty depths.

Greg Maughan

Sunderland, Tyne & Wear