This lost image from 1936 gives a fascinating insight into life at a doomed village before it was drowned to make way for a reservoir which serves Nottingham. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like for Ashopton postmaster William Hubbard and a fellow resident as they discuss the Derbyshire hamlet’s impending doom.
Ashopton was later demolished in 1943 before being submerged as part of the Derwent Valley scheme, which opened as Ladybower Reservoir, in 1945. The water is treated at Hope Valley’s Bamford water treatment works before flowing along the 28-mile long Derwent Valley Aqueduct to an Ambergate reservoir, which provides clean water for Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and the East Midlands.
But it all came at a high price for Ashopton and neighbouring Derwent, which were lost forever, just like that. In 2017, an intriguing book of photographs, many of them once sold at Mr Hubbard’s post office, were made public. They provided a fascinating insight into these soon-to-be troubled times, and were later put up for auction and sold for £310.
