For those who are regular readers you will have realised that there are certain themes about the locations that I like to explore. Usually a few hills, maybe the odd ruin, but I do like water. Whether that the sea, a river or even a reservoir, I don’t mind. There tends to be interesting things to take photographs of in this tutor of location. Not always but as a rule it does generally work. This weekend we took a walk around Ogden Reservoir. I parked the car at Clough Head and we had a brew and asked the very nice lady at the coffee stall what was the best walk, and she wasn’t wrong by advising us to walk past the old quarry and down onto the side of the reservoir.
Ogden Reservoir
It was only after we found the official path that I realised that we had been walking on the parts of the reservoirs land that were actually not meant for public walking. It was rather odd though as there were a few things like paths and benches that you associate with the public areas.
The Trench
This image when I reject back on it should have given me a clue our two. Barbed wire, a trench, they don’t want people near the edge of this reservoir. This is unlike lots of others but doing some research beforehand it didn’t say that you couldn’t walk around it as such. as we worked our way around the fence that was the nearest point we could get to the water we could see other people in the distance and decided to head that way. I didn’t want arresting for trespass!!
The Intersection
Once we got onto legal land, we came across the view that you can see in this second image. It seems to me that the engineers who constructed these reservoirs built in a system where water flows down the valley, from the hills into a series of reservoirs. the angle on this image doesn’t quite give you the sense of how fast flowing the water was. It struck me as we walked past here that there may be a good image to be had here, and on reflection I think there is. lots of interest throughout the frame and eye is led through the image by the various lines created by the walls and fences and trees etc. leading all the way to the horizon. I do like this image and I may be back to add this to my 12 in 12 Significant image project.
The Pools
Public Walking Trails
Lots of thought has gone into the layout of the trails around this area, and we came across this little group of pools as we walked around. Ultimately the water works its way down through a series of streams and under bridges etc until it reaches the actual reservoir. I quite liked the white swirly effect that is on the top of this small pool. I took all these images with my walk around camera my Sony A6600 and hand held at 1/40 second we do get a little white effect of the swirls. As we were out walking I didn’t want to stop and spend time setting up the tripod and fillers. This will be for another day.
A stoop Post?
Not far from the swirling pool I came across this scene in this next image. I have a fascination for these types of stones, are they way finding stones? I’m not sure what it is but it does add some foreground interest to this scene. This shows the array of gullies that have been constructed. This allows the water to be managed through to the reservoir in a very effective way.
A Bit of History
I was very pleasantly surprised with the scene that’s in this last image. I really didn’t expect to see the ruins of an old house. This is Lower Ormerods.
Lower Ormerods
This is the site of the house of the Ormerod, family who frequented these parts in bygone times. It’s interesting how small the rooms are when you look at the floor layout here. It struck me that it would get a bit cold on these hills in the winter. Maybe smaller rooms are easier to keep warm. There is a good deal of history surrounding this house and you can read more by clicking HERE.
This is a location I will go back to explore and photograph further.