Bewl Water Overflow, Sussex - September 2012

Bewl Water is a reservoir in the valley of the River Bewl (which is a tributary of the River Teise), straddling the boundary between Kent and East Sussex. It is about 4 km south of Lamberhurst, Kent, England. The reservoir was part of a project to increase supplies of water in the area. It supplies not only Southern Water's customers in the Medway towns, Thanet and Hastings, but is also used by other water companies in the area. Work began to construct the reservoir in 1973 by damming and then flooding a valley. It was completed in 1975 having been filled with over 31,300 million litres of water. It is now the largest body of inland water in south east England.

Only a short overflow tunnel for the reservoir, not really the most interesting of places, but it was nice to get back underground and a good use of an hour. Hopefully a decent introduction to drains for JasperB and she'll be back for more interesting stuff soon!

Looking out across the reservoir, the overflow plug hole to the right. The outlet. The wave of water from the dam as it rejoins the river. Lovely green moss all over the pipe, obviously the overflow isn't often used. Looking back to the outlet. It was quite a long tunnel. The base of the plug hole.