Just a little about Bartley Reservoir and the area around to start you off:

• This was all once Northfield, which itself was in Worcestershire that spread as far as Kings Heath. 

• It sits in a natural valley. 

• It has an interesting heritage but generally it has been farmland, with St Leonard’s and Frankley Manor that were near the church, on Church Hill. 

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Life was pretty calm here until: 

• Frankley Reservoir and Water Treatment Works was completed in 1904, with water being carried down from the Welsh Elan Valley by gravity alone. Dropping only 52 metres from beginning to end. 

• Later as Birmingham expanded Bartley Reservoir was completed in 1930 to meet the water needs of the city and help it overcome cholera and dysentery which were plaguing the city. 

• At that time half of Bartley Reservoir was in Birmingham, and half was in Worcestershire until the boundaries were changed again to permit the reservoir to come under Birmingham. 

• Everything around here at that time would have still been farmland with the houses creeping around the edges from the 1950’s onwards.

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The Reservoir itself:

• The reservoir itself is a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation and the edges/drains a Site of Local Importance for Nature Conservation.

• Bartley Sailing Club was created in the late 1970's by local sailors who saw the potential of the size of water and the wind accelerating down the hill at the top end of the reservoir in the prevailing South-Westerlies.

• They have active fleets in RS400, Merlin Rocket, Phantom, Solo, Supernova, Laser and Mirror classes, with many other types of sailing dinghies also represented in their handicap fleet. They run training throughout the week, and during the summer months they have their K2O club which trains and develops young sailors from the age of 8 to 18 years.

• They welcome windsurfers, canoeists, and Stand Up Paddle boarders.

• The Andrew Simpson Centre has recently moved into the Sailing Club and operate the Midlands Watersports Centre from there.