Restoration for 'Great Flood' reservoir

The company has announced that Dale Dike, near Bradfield, will be the latest site to benefit from the 60m restoration programme that is currently taking place at reservoirs across the region.

Work there should begin on Monday – when contractors Mott MacDonald Bentley start clearing trees from the embankment.

Yorkshire Water hopes the improvements will be complete before Christmas.

Community engagement manager Richard Sears said: "We're conscious that the area is of interest to local customers and visitors and we would like to assure everybody concerned that we will only remove trees that we absolutely need to.

"Without this critical work, there would be a danger that the reservoir could become unstable as a result of tree roots and this is clearly, and quite understandably, something we are not wishing to compromise.

"Local residents and the parish council are being consulted on the work and we want to reassure them and indeed all users of the site that we'll do everything we can to carry out this work with the minimum amount of disturbance."

The Great Sheffield Flood of March 1864 happened when when the newly-built Dale Dike dam wall failed.

An estimated 700m gallons of water swept down the Loxley Valley and up the River Don as far as both Sheffield and Rotherham, destroying 800 houses and killing 270 people.

The "new" dam, which was rebuilt in 1875, is still in use.

Yorkshire Water will soon finish work removing a landslip in New Road, near Damflask reservoir.

The work, which began last month, is expected to end next Tuesday.

Project manager Paul Robins said: "The support and help we've received from local residents and road users has enabled us to complete the project ahead of schedule."