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NOSTALGIA: Walking the streets of a long lost village

The long dry summer of 1959 revealed a long lost village that had been hidden for decades on the bed of Ladybower Reservoir.

Picturesque Derwent with its cottages, church, woods and roads was  ‘drowned’ in 1944 as part of a domestic water supply system.

The valley seemed the perfect place to construct reservoirs to serve cities and towns and Derwent was one of the casualties.

By late summer 1959, Ladybower’s waters had dropped so much that the rubble and remains of Derwent Village were emerging.

As the Chronicle was reporting in August of that year, thousands of sightseers were pouring into the new attraction 10 miles from Glossop.

They came by coach, cars, two wheels and two feet. They walked the dried-up Ladybower bed, looking at the relics of the once happy village, some carving their initials on the masonry.

As always happens, the rains came, Derwent disappeared once again.

But in the long dry summers that followed when water levels fell, sightseers poured in once more.

Just, no doubt, as they will, the next time old Derwent emerges again.

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