Stones Island at Carsington Water is, as far as I’m aware, just a “tourist attraction” that was built sometime after the completion of the reservoir in the early 1990s. The stones themselves are carved from Derbyshire gritstone and vary in height from 1.7 to 4 metres in height and the heaviest weighs 7.6 tonnes - or so I’m told!
The reservoir is England’s ninth largest and can hold something like 7.5 billion gallons of water. There is some natural water run off into Carsington Water but most of it is pumped up from the River Derwent via an under ground aqueduct of over 10km in length.
All the above facts are things that I’ve learnt today too! Isn’t is always the case; you live close to somewhere for all your life, or in the case of Carsington, all it’s life, and yet you know nothing about it really! Thanks to Flore, I’ve found out one or two things today!
One thing I did know about this place… back in 1977 my dad won one of his best ever Autograss races right where the reservoir is now! Our club had their track in fields that were purchased as part of the reservoir build. I often look out into the water, from the end of the road that used to lead to the field, and think back to that day!
To this day, I can still picture my dad crossing the finish line, throwing both arms up in triumph and nearly turning the car end-over-end as he hit a big rut in the track!!!!
The reservoir is England’s ninth largest and can hold something like 7.5 billion gallons of water. There is some natural water run off into Carsington Water but most of it is pumped up from the River Derwent via an under ground aqueduct of over 10km in length.
All the above facts are things that I’ve learnt today too! Isn’t is always the case; you live close to somewhere for all your life, or in the case of Carsington, all it’s life, and yet you know nothing about it really! Thanks to Flore, I’ve found out one or two things today!
One thing I did know about this place… back in 1977 my dad won one of his best ever Autograss races right where the reservoir is now! Our club had their track in fields that were purchased as part of the reservoir build. I often look out into the water, from the end of the road that used to lead to the field, and think back to that day!
To this day, I can still picture my dad crossing the finish line, throwing both arms up in triumph and nearly turning the car end-over-end as he hit a big rut in the track!!!!
WOW thank you, both for Stone Island and your dad's story :)
ReplyDeleteJust don't ask me any questions about where i live(there are quite a few that could be told actually but then i'd have to do some research... lazy me)
hugs