How to get there

• Click here for Ordnance Survey map. Access by car is off Woodall Lane, Harthill.
• The reservoir is signposted as you turn onto Pryor Mede.  The reservoirs can be found on Ordnance Survey Landranger Sheet 120.
• Public transport: there is a regular bus service from Sheffield and Rotherham with First Mainline. 

Overview

The site consists of a series of three linked ponds lying roughly North to South each split by a small bridge (site map). Along with nearby Pebley Pond they were originally built around 1770 as a feeder reservoir for the Chesterfield canal that is located Kiveton Park approximately two miles to the north. The largest of the ponds covers 20 acres and drops to 20 feet close to the dam wall. All three are currently used as fishing lakes. The main pond is also the home to the Rotherham Sailing Club.

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The reservoirs are surrounded by farmland. There is a small wood on the west side of the main pond with other smaller patches of marshy scrub around the remaining edges. The second pool is shallower and has a small reedbed. At the southern end of the third pool lies a copse with a stream running through that regularly floods in winter.

Facilities

There is free car parking adjacent to the sailing club. There are no public toilet facilities on the site. Both the first and second ponds have a substantial path running around the perimeter enabling disabled access. The path around the third pond is rough and can be extremely muddy when wet.

Likely species

The whole site has a good mix of common birds and in a two hour walk a total of over 40 species is possible.

The site is probably most productive in the winter when small numbers of common wildfowl such as Tufted Duck, Pochard and Gadwall are present along with the Great-crested Grebes which stay on to breed in summer. Less regular species include Wigeon, Goosander and Shoveler. Rarer winter visitors have in the past included Ring-necked Duck, Scaup and Black-throated Diver. Water Rails can be found in small numbers around all three ponds especially in winter.

Summer visitors include Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiff-chaff and Willow Warbler along with small numbers of Reed and Sedge Warblers. Both Garden and Grasshopper Warblers have also been recorded in spring.

Resident birds include Mute Swans which nest annually, as well as small numbers of Tree Sparrow, Willow Tit, Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer. Kingfisher can also be seen on any of the three ponds. The key to spotting this species is to listen out for the high pitched call and then quickly look over the open water as it flashes past. On occasions the bird can be seen to hover up to ten feet above the water before plunging in after small fish. Both Kestrel and Sparrowhawk occur and Common Buzzard is becoming a more regular sight.

Passage brings the occasional wader such as Common Sandpiper, Curlew or Oystercatcher, although the lack of open mud means conditions are rarely suitable for them to land. The reservoir can also attract passing Terns. Other recent birds have included Mandarin, Ring Ouzel and Peregrine.

Unfortunately the area no longer attracts the large numbers of finches and buntings it did in the past. Harthill was once a winter hotspot for the Corn Bunting, a species that currently only just maintains a toehold in the Sheffield area as a breeding bird. The lack of these winter flocks mean a repeat of the superb events of 1996 when a Pine Bunting was discovered, is now even less likely (if that is possible!).

Click here for recent site records.

Nearby sites

Include Pebley Pond and Rother Valley Country Park.