Crookes Valley Park is an area of public parkland in the Crookesmoor area of the City of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, England. The park lies just under two kilometres west of the

City centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

at . It is one of the three “Crookesmoor Parks” the other two being

Weston Park Weston Park is a country house in Weston-under-Lizard, Staffordshire, England, set in more than of park landscaped by Capability Brown. The park is located north-west of Wolverhampton, and east of Telford, close to the border with Shropshire ...

and The Ponderosa.

History

Crookes Valley Park covers an area of approximately 4.8 hectares (11.9 acres), and the majority of the park is taken up by the lake, which was originally a water supply reservoir called the Old Great Dam. It was one of ten reservoirs built in open countryside in the valley between

Crookes Crookes is a suburb of the City of Sheffield, England, about west of the city centre. It borders Broomhill to the south, Walkley and Upperthorpe to the east and open countryside around the River Rivelin to the north. The population of the ...

and Upperthorpe to supply water to the growing City of Sheffield in the 18th century. The Old Great Dam was built in 1785 with a capacity of and was thought big enough to supply the town for many years, however the ten reservoirs became obsolete by the 20th century and were all filled in with the exception of the Old Great Dam.Information board at park Gives information on history of park. The Old Great Dam was integrated into Crookes Valley Park when it was set out by

Sheffield Corporation Sheffield City Council is the local authority for the City of Sheffield, a metropolitan borough with city status in South Yorkshire, England. The council consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It ...

in the early years of the 20th century. For many years it was used as a boating lake and has been used for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

. It is fed by a small stream which flows through a culvert into the western corner. The lake is said to be deep and there are unsubstantiated stories of large

Pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

and

Zander The zander (''Sander lucioperca''), sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the Family (biology), family Percidae, which also includes perch, Gymnocephalus, ruffe and Darter (fish), darter. It is found in freshwater and brackis ...

living in the depths. On the south western fringe of the park is the Dam House bar and restaurant, a building of some antiquity. It was built in the 1780s when the Dam was being constructed and originally served as the house of the Water Board's solicitor.Friends of Crookesmoor Parks.
Gives history of park and dams. Two

Bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

greens were constructed in the park shortly after it was opened, and a children's playground was built in the 1970s. Both were constructed in a part of the park which was known as the recreation ground, and thus marked on old

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

maps, it was an area of quite steep banking built as a dam wall for the reservoir.''"Old Ordnance Survey Maps: Sheffield (West)"'' Gives history and topography of Old Great Dam.

Swimming

Swimming takes place at the lake almost every day of the year, despite signage at the site stating "No Swimming". Swimmers have been known to break ice in the middle of winter to swim. Local swimmers have approached the council various times in attempt to replace the "No Swimming" signs with useful and accurate water safety signage, with help and advice from the Outdoor Swimming Society Inland Access Group.Wild Swim.
Details of wild swimming. On 18 July 2021, a man drowned while swimming in the lake. Emergency services arrived on scene but were unable to retrieve him in time. The park was then evacuated to make way for a more thorough search.Sheffield Online
report on incident.BBC news
report on incidents in the same weekend.

Artistic depictions

The Dam House and Old Great Dam was painted by the artist William Ibbittt and is featured in a photograph from the 1950s in the Frith Collection.

References

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