Foremark Reservoir ( OS grid reference ) is a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

South Derbyshire South Derbyshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Derbyshire, England. The district covers the towns of Melbourne, Derbyshire, Melbourne and Swadlincote as well as numerous villages and hamlets such as Hilton, Derbys ...

owned by

Severn Trent Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the ...

which is also a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

open to the public for walking, fishing, bird watching and horse riding. Severn Trent are working together with the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

at Foremark. It is also the base for Burton Sailing Club. The reservoirs source of water is from the River Dove at Egginton, and it was constructed in the 1970s. The reservoir is accessible from the road between Milton and

Ticknall Ticknall is a small village and civil parish in South Derbyshire, England. The population of the civil parish (including Calke) at the 2011 Census was 642. Situated on the A514 road, close to Melbourne, it has three pubs, several small business ...

. It is north of

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Ashby-de-la-Zouch (), also spelled Ashby de la Zouch, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England, near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire borders. Its population at the 2021 census was ...

and close to Ingleby,

Swadlincote Swadlincote is a historic mining town in the district of South Derbyshire, in the county of Derbyshire, England. It lies within The National Forest (England), The National Forest area. It borders the counties of Leicestershire and Staffordshire ...

and Willington. It is part of the

National Forest National Forest may refer to: * National forest or state forest, a forest administered or protected by a sovereign state ** National forest (Brazil) ** National forest (France) ** National forest (United States) ** State Forests (Poland) ** The N ...

. Admission is free, but there is a charge for the use of the car park.

Wildlife

Twenty-seven varieties of butterfly have been recorded on the reserve, including the

large skipper The large skipper (''Ochlodes sylvanus'') is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. Taxonomy It was long known as ''Ochlodes venatus'', but this is a Far Eastern relative. There is still some dispute whether this species should be considered a d ...

, the speckled wood,

white-letter hairstreak The white-letter hairstreak (''Satyrium w-album'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. Appearance and behaviour A dark little butterfly that spends the majority of its life in the tree tops, feeding on honeydew, making it best observed thr ...

small copper ''Lycaena phlaeas'', the small copper, American copper, or common copper, is a butterfly of the Lycaenids or gossamer-winged butterfly family. According to Guppy and Shepard (2001), its specific name ''phlaeas'' is said to be derived eithe ...

holly blue The holly blue (''Celastrina argiolus'') Retrieved April 20, 2018. is a butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family and is native to the Palearctic. Description The holly blue has pale silver-blue wings spotted with pale ivory dots ...

and the

brown argus ''Aricia agestis'', the brown argus, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found throughout the Palearctic realm, north to northern Jutland (Denmark) and east to Siberia and the Tian Shan. Subspecies *''A. a. agestis'' southern and ce ...

. The reservoir is stocked with trout and is available for

angling Angling (from Old English ''angol'', meaning "hook") is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated with a fishing rod, although rodless te ...

between the end of March and the middle of December. One reason for the plentiful fish might be the large abundance of aquatic invertebrates – including

dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threat ...

larvae, water boatman, great diving beetles (and larvae), pond skaters,

water scorpion Nepidae is a family of exclusively aquatic Heteropteran insects in the order Hemiptera. They are commonly called water scorpions for their superficial resemblance to scorpions, due to their raptorial forelegs and the presence of a long slender p ...

s and silver diving beetles.

References

External links

National Forest PageGeograph Photos of Foremark Reservoir
Reservoirs in Derbyshire Drinking water reservoirs in England {{Derbyshire-geo-stub