Roadford Lake, also known as Roadford Reservoir is a man-made reservoir fed by the
River Wolf. It is located to the north-east of
Broadwoodwidger
Broadwoodwidger is a village and civil parish in the Torridge District, Torridge district of Devon, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 548. The village is just to the north of the A30 road, and is about eight miles east ...
in West
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
, east of
Launceston and is the largest area of fresh water in the southwest of England. Operated by
South West Water
South West Water is a British private utility company responsible for the water supply and waste water treatment services throughout Devon and Cornwall and in small areas of Dorset and Somerset. South West Water was created in 1989 with the pr ...
, it directly supplies water for North Devon. It also supplies Plymouth and southwest Devon via releases into the
River Tamar
The Tamar (; ) is a river in south west England that forms most of the border between Devon (to the east) and Cornwall (to the west). A large part of the valley of the Tamar is protected as the Tamar Valley National Landscape (an Area of Outsta ...
for
abstraction
Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abstraction" ...
at
Gunnislake
Gunnislake () is a large village in east Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the Tamar Valley approximately north of Plymouth The first woman cabinet minister in the British Empire, Mary Ellen Smith, was born here in 1863.
G ...
. It is a
Local Nature Reserve.
The creation of the reservoir in 1989 permitted extensive archaeological research to be undertaken in the valley of the River Wolf led by Professor
Mick Aston
Michael Antony Aston (1 July 1946 – 24 June 2013) was an English archaeologist who specialised in Early Medieval landscape archaeology. Over the course of his career, he lectured at both the University of Bristol and University of Oxford and ...
of Bristol University and documented by the
Channel Four
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded entirely by its commer ...
documentary series ''
Time Signs
''Time Signs'' is a British television series that aired on Channel 4 in 1991. Presented by Mick Aston, the series tells the story of a Devon valley throughout history. Phil Harding does some reconstruction archaeology. The series was narrate ...
''.
In 2008 South West Water received planning permission to build a 100-bed holiday village beside the lake.
Facilities
* Brown Trout fishing
* Lakeside Cafe
* Activities:
** Sailing
** Rowing
** Kayaking
** Windsurfing
** Canadian Canoes
** High Ropes Course
** Outdoor Archery Range
** Indoor Climbing wall
**
Raft building
* Footpath walks through mature forests/woodland
* Cycleway through mature forests/woodland
* Adjacent campsite
The facilities are managed by South West Lakes Trust, a registered charity.
Incidents
On 9 June 2022, two people died when the motorboat they were travelling in capsized on the lake.
References
External links
*https://www.swlakestrust.org.uk/roadford-lake
*https://rlsc.webnode.co.uk/
*https://www.bristolnomads.org.uk/trip_reports/roadford_2000.php
Reservoirs in Devon
Local Nature Reserves in Devon
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