Perry Barr Reservoir is a covered drinking water reservoir, in north Birmingham, England. Built on the site of the former Perry Barr Farm, it is not, despite its name, in the modern Perry Barr area, but nearby Kingstanding, at grid reference SP083951.
The reservoir is supplied by gravity from The Elan Valley, via Frankley Water Treatment Works and the trunk mains system.
The reservoir holds 83 million litres of water and supplies areas such as Kingstanding, Perry Barr, Great Barr and Witton.
When built, it was in open countryside, but its surroundings are now urban. There are two old, matching signs at the entrance (both now vandalised with graffiti and chewing gum). One reads:
City of Birmingham Water Department
the other:
The water in this reservoir (capacity 18 million gallons) has flowed 86 miles, without being pumped, though tunnels & pipes from the mountains of mid-Wales.
Famous quotes containing the words perry, barr and/or reservoir:
“You’ll admit there’s always the possibility of some employee becoming disgruntled over some fancied injustice. Dissatisfaction always leads to temptation. There’s always purchasers for valuable secrets.”
—Joseph O’Donnell. Clifford Sanforth. Donald Jordan, Murder by Television, trying to bribe Perry into revealing Professor Houghland’s secret (1935)
“Whatever the scientists may say, if we take the supernatural out of life, we leave only the unnatural.”
—Amelia E. Barr (1831–1919)
“It’s very expressive of myself. I just lump everything in a great heap which I have labeled “the past,” and, having thus emptied this deep reservoir that was once myself, I am ready to continue.”
—Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948)