CALVER WEIR
Client: English Heritage
Project: Restoration of Calver Weir and the overflow channel
In 2004, a local community group set out to save the Calver Weir, an ancient monument on the River Derwent built to power the Calver Mill at the height of the industrial revolution. At serious risk of being lost, the Calver Weir Restoration Project enlisted the services of Barker Langham to help them make an application for funding to the Heritage Lottery Fund to ensure the survival of this heritage asset.
We were tasked with reinstating the weir to its former, fully-functional and working state and to build an engineered channel to the side of the weir to act as a salmon run, which was specifically requested by local fishermen and The Environment Agency. To enable this project to work, an inflatable dam was placed directly upstream of the weir, a section at a time. The gradient of the weir was retained and a new 900mm deep concrete raft was anchored with dowels to the existing bed and the original sets laid on top.
The majority of the stone used was from the existing weir, with our sister company Yorkshire Stone Supplies providing the remainder to complete the project.