Elan Valley dams overflowing after heavy rain: pictures

The Mid Wales beauty spot, popular with visitors from Herefordshire, is home to four dams along the Elan River, near Rhayader, Powys.

Heavy rain has swelled rivers around the country, with the reservoirs in the Elan Valley overflowing as they reach maximum capacity.

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Jonathan Rudd shared a stunning bird's eye view of the Craig Goch in full flow again after maintenance works.

Craig Coch dam, which is listed, has been overflowing. Picture: David Jehu

The grade II*-listed Craig Goch Dam, which is also called the "top dam" as it creates the uppermost of the Elan Valley reservoirs, has undergone work to "safeguard its use for the 21st century", planning consultants Oxford Archaeology said.

A new scour downstream control in concrete housing has been installed roughly centrally between the two banks.

From this, hydraulic hoses in concrete housing extend to the east bank, and an air supply network runs to the west bank.

Further down the valley is Pen Y Garreg dam. Picture: David Jehu

The hydraulic hose now enters into the 1997 concrete turbine house on the east bank.

Craig Goch Dam is one of four dams on the river Elan which were constructed to supply water to Birmingham between 1893 and 1904.

It is the furthest upstream of the series of dams, located at a height of 317 metres above sea level.

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It cost £6 million to build the dams, aqueduct and Frankley Reservoir near Birmingham, which is where the water pumped from the Elan Valley is stored before it is piped into the city.

Building the structures took twelve years to complete. There was significant opposition to the scheme because of the loss of communities and land.

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As construction work started in 1893 a number of buildings had to be demolished including eighteen cottages, a church, a chapel, a school and two substantial homes.

King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited the Elan Valley on the July 21, 1904, for the official opening of the new water supply for Birmingham.

It takes two days for the water to travel from Mid Wales to the Frankley reservoir.