In the 1880s, Cheltenham was growing rapidly as a fashionable spa town, and its water supply could not keep up. Cheltenham Borough Council acquired the local waterworks in 1878 and between 1883 and 1886 constructed Dowdeswell Reservoir by damming the upper valley of the River Chelt. The reservoir served as the town's primary water supply for over a century. When Severn Trent Water commissioned the larger Mythe Treatment Works on the River Severn, Dowdeswell was repurposed as a flood storage reservoir — a role it plays to this day, protecting Cheltenham from flooding after heavy rain. The surrounding woodland, classified as ancient — meaning it has been continuously wooded since at least the 1600s — was established as a nature reserve in 1973. Common toads migrate to the reservoir to spawn each spring in such numbers that signs are erected on the road to warn drivers. The ancient woodland supports bluebells, wood anemone, early-purple orchids, and ramsons (wild garlic). Great crested grebes nest on the reservoir itself, and you may hear their elaborate courtship calls echoing across the water. The Cotswold Way runs along the western edge of the wood, and the dam can be glimpsed through the trees.
“The surrounding woodland, classified as ancient — meaning it has been continuously wooded since at least the 1600s — was established as a nature reserve in 1973.”
