O/K. db, this is just for you.The 71 square miles of the sparsely populated hills and valleys of 'The Elan Valley' were aquired by Birmingham Corporation for the elaborate reservoir scheme, built between 1893 and 1906. The imaginative scheme involved the construction of four massive dams and a 73 mile aqueduct to the south of Birmingham. An additional reservoir was added in the early 1950s. Construction of the reservoirs led to the demolition of a church, a school, a chapel and 20 farms. The remains of the house and gardens of Nantgwillt, associated with the famous poet Shelley, can still be seen during periods of drought and were the inspiration for the 1930s romantic novel, 'The House Under Water'. The engineering architecture has a distintive theatrical style, popularly termed 'Birmingham Baroque'. Careful and sympathetic management has resulted in the remarkable preservation of both the engineering works and surrounding landscape in much the form that must have been envisaged by those that designed and built them a century ago.