The Claerwen Dam , Wales

Completed in 1952, the Claerwen reservoir and dam in Powys, Wales, were built to provide water to satisfy the needs of the increasingly demanding city of Birmingham.

Constructed mainly of concrete, the exterior of the 355m long dam face is dressed stone. The dam itself is of a type called a gravity dam. This type of dam needs to be built upon solid foundations as the pressure of the reservoir behind should be in equilibrium with the total weight of the dam itself thus causing complete stability.

The Claerwen dam was finished in 1952 and was given a late Victorian effect so that it blended in with the earlier dams in the valley. It was builyt by Italian stonemasons as many of the British ones were still at work in London during the post-war rebuilding process of the late 1940s.

The dam took six years to complete and was almost twice the size of the other dams in the Elan valley. The Claerwen reservoir is almost the size of all the other reservoirs in the Elan Valley system combined.

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