Belvide Reservoir is a reservoir in South Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Owned by British Waterways

British Waterways

British Waterways is a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom, serving as the navigation authority in England, Scotland and Wales for the vast majority of the canals as well as a number of rivers and docks...

, it was constructed c. 1833 to feed the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal

Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal

The Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal was a canal in England which ran from Nantwich, where it joined the Chester Canal, to Autherley, where it joined the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal...

, which is now the Shropshire Union Canal

Shropshire Union Canal

The Shropshire Union Canal is a navigable canal in England; the Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union system and lie partially in Wales....

. The Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford

Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...

 round gear house is a Grade II* listed building.

It is the site of a nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

, operated by the West Midland Bird Club and is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 (SSSI). Entry is by permit only.

This reservoir has been visited by many scarce and rare migrant

Bird migration

Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s, including White-winged Black Tern (1970, 1974, 1992, 1999), Whiskered Tern

Whiskered Tern

The Whiskered Tern is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a number of geographical races, differing mainly in size and minor plumage details....

 (1969), Caspian Tern

Caspian Tern

The Caspian Tern is a species of tern, with a subcosmopolitan but scattered distribution. Despite its extensive range, it is monotypic of its genus, and has no subspecies accepted either...

 (1968, 1992), Spotted Crake

Spotted Crake

The Spotted Crake is a small waterbird, of the family Rallidae.Their breeding habitat is marshes and sedge beds across temperate Europe into western Asia. They nest in a dry location in marsh vegetation, laying 6-15 eggs...

 and Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

The Spotted Sandpiper is a small shorebird, 18–20 cm long. Together with its sister species, the Common Sandpiper they make up the genus Actitis...

 (1982).

The nearest village is Brewood

Brewood

Brewood refers both to a settlement, which was once a town but is now a village, in South Staffordshire, England, and to the civil parish of which it is the centre. Located around , Brewood village lies near the River Penk, eight miles north of Wolverhampton city centre and eleven miles south of...

. The A5 runs close to the north shore, crossed by the canal nearby, at Stretton Aqueduct

Stretton Aqueduct

Stretton Aqueduct is a short cast iron canal aqueduct between Stretton and Brewood, and near to Belvide Reservoir, in south Staffordshire, England...

.

See also

• Canals of the United Kingdom
  Canals of the United Kingdom
  The canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a colourful history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's role for recreational boating...
  
  
• History of the British canal system
  History of the British canal system
  The British canal system of water transport played a vital role in the United Kingdom's Industrial Revolution at a time when roads were only just emerging from the medieval mud and long trains of pack horses were the only means of "mass" transit by road of raw materials and finished products The...