Combs Reservoir from Whitehills by Dave Dunford

Combs Reservoir is a canal-feeder reservoir in the

Peak District National Park Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)- ...

, close to Combs village in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

. The town of

Chapel-en-le-Frith Chapel-en-le-Frith () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, England. It has been dubbed the "Capital of the Peak", in reference to the Peak District, historically the upperland areas between the Saxon lands (bel ...

lies about east of the reservoir. Combs was built in 1797 as the first reservoir to feed the

Peak Forest Canal The Peak Forest Canal is a narrow ( gauge) locked artificial waterway in northern England. It is long and forms part of the connected English/Welsh inland waterway network. Route and features General description The canal consists of two level ...

(which opened in 1800) at

Whaley Bridge Whaley Bridge () is a town and civil parish in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. It is situated on the River Goyt, south-east of Manchester, north of Buxton, north-east of Macclesfield and west of Sheffield. It had a population ...

. The canal was critical for transporting goods to and from the corn mills, cotton factories, collieries, and other local industries, as well as connecting to the

Ashton Canal The Ashton Canal is a canal in Greater Manchester, England, linking Manchester with Ashton-under-Lyne. Route The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for through 18 locks, passing thro ...

for the nearby limestone quarries. In 1831 the

Macclesfield Canal The Macclesfield Canal is a canal in east Cheshire, England. There were various proposals for a canal to connect the town of Macclesfield to the national network from 1765 onwards, but it was not until 1824 that a scheme came to fruition. There ...

was completed, which was connected to the Peak Forest Canal at Marple. The Toddbrook Reservoir at Whaley Bridge was built as an additional feeder reservoir and the dam at Combs Reservoir was raised between 1834 and 1840, in order to meet the demand for a greater water supply to the extended canal system. By the 1940s use of these canals for transporting industrial goods had ended. The reservoir is now owned by the

Canal & River Trust The Canal & River Trust (CRT), branded as in Wales, holds the guardianship of 2,000 miles of canals and rivers, together with reservoirs and a wide range of heritage buildings and structures, in England and Wales. Launched on 12 July 2012, the ...

. The

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the High Peak, Derbyshire, Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

railway line runs between Combs Reservoir and Combs village to the south and alongside the western shore. The reservoir is overlooked by

Eccles Pike Eccles Pike is an isolated hill three miles to the west of Chapel en le Frith in the Derbyshire Peak District. It consists of gritstone, pink in colour at the summit. While not as prominent as the surrounding hills of Cracken Edge and Combs Mos ...

hill from the north and from the south by the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

promontory hillfort Castle Naze, at the northern end of

Combs Moss Combs Moss is a plateau-topped hill between Chapel-en-le-Frith and Buxton in Derbyshire, in the Peak District. The summit, Combs Head, is above sea level. The moorland plateau is flanked by Combs Edge and the Goyt Valley to the west, the vil ...

. Castle Naze is a protected

Scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. Combs Reservoir is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is particularly important for its 'ephemeral

bryophyte The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants ( embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited ...

' mosses (such as the rare ''Physcomitrium sphaericum'') and

liverworts The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of g ...

(''Ricca glauca'' and ''Fossombronia wondraczekii''). The area is a rich habitat for birdlife including the

great crested grebe The great crested grebe (''Podiceps cristatus'') is a member of the grebe family of water birds noted for its elaborate mating display. Taxonomy The great crested grebe was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in ...

little ringed plover The little ringed plover (''Charadrius dubius'') is a small plover. The genus name ''Charadrius'' is a Late Latin word for a yellowish bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek ''kharadrios'' a bird found in river ...

snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. The '' Gallinago'' snipes have a n ...

and

lapwing Lapwings ( subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. A ...

. Combs Sailing Club has used the reservoir for sailing training and racing since 1950.

References

{{authority control Reservoirs of the Peak District Reservoirs in Derbyshire Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Derbyshire Peak District