Perry Barr Reservoir is a covered drinking water

Drinking water

Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...

 reservoir

Reservoir

A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...

, in north Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Built on the site of the former Perry Barr Farm, it is not, despite its name, in the modern Perry Barr

Perry Barr

Perry Barr is an inner-city area in north Birmingham, England. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Perry Barr ward and the wards of Handsworth Wood, Lozells and East Handsworth, and Oscott, which elect three councillors to...

 area, but nearby Kingstanding

Kingstanding

Kingstanding is an area in north Birmingham, England. It gives its name to a ward in the Erdington council constituency. Kingstanding ward includes the areas; Perry Common, St. Mary's College, Witton Lakes and parts of Kingstanding, Wyrley Birch and New Oscott...

, at .

The reservoir is supplied by gravity from The Elan Valley, via Frankley Water Treatment Works

Frankley Water Treatment Works

Severn Trent Water's Frankley Water Treatment Works at Frankley, Birmingham, England, supplies drinking water to Birmingham and the surrounding area. The plant treats water from the Elan Valley in Wales, which arrives at Frankley Reservoir by gravity feed along the Elan aqueduct with a gradient of...

 and the trunk mains system.

The reservoir holds 83 million litres of water and supplies areas such as Kingstanding, Perry Barr, Great Barr

Great Barr

Great Barr is a large and loosely-defined area which straddles the boundaries of Birmingham, West Bromwich and Walsall , West Midlands, England...

 and Witton

Witton

Witton may refer to one of several places in England:*Witton-le-Wear, County Durham*Witton, Lancashire, a former parish in Blackburn*Postwick with Witton, in the county of Norfolk and 5 miles east of Norwich, in Broadland district...

.

When built, it was in open countryside, but its surroundings are now urban. There are two old, matching signs at the entrance (both now vandalised with graffiti and chewing gum). One reads:

City of Birmingham Water Department

the other:

The water in this reservoir (capacity 18 million gallons) has flowed 86 miles, without being pumped, though tunnels & pipes from the mountains of mid-Wales.