How did reservoirs alter the countryside and city life? The answer is a riveting story of water and identity in modern Britain.

Carving vast lakes into the countryside, reservoirs have long reshaped the landscapes and communities of England and Wales. Waterscapes evaluates how these feats of engineering transformed rural and urban environments between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, altering local ecologies and economies. Through studies of Leeds’s Washburn Valley, Liverpool’s Vyrnwy Reservoir, and Birmingham’s Elan Reservoir, Andrew McTominey addresses the environmental consequences of dam construction and the surprising ways in which reservoirs became sites of leisure and tourism.

McTominey explains that water management has never been a simple question of supply and demand, but a story of contested landscapes and the complex interplay between nature and human ambition. Drawing on environmental history and urban studies, Waterscapes demystifies the reservoirs that continue to shape Britain’s countryside and city life.

Andrew McTominey is an independent scholar who has previously worked at Leeds Beckett University, the University of Huddersfield, and the University of Leeds.

**Introduction Waterscapes 1 Chapter 1 Remaking the countryside: urban engineering and the pursuit of water 2 Chapter 2 Slips and spillages: reservoirs and the environment 3 Chapter 3 Seeing the wood for the trees: afforestation and managing water supply 4 Chapter 4 Romantic waterscapes: the development of cultural landscapes 5 Chapter 5 All play and no fun: waterworks and the pursuit of leisure 6 Chapter 6 Urban intrusion: community in the urban/rural hinterland Conclusion Going back for more: urban demand on the rural environment**