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Brookvale Park Lake

reservoir in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ4975188
Source-derived summary

Brookvale Park Lake previously known as Lower Witton Reservoir (grid reference SP091911) is a former drinking water reservoir in the Erdington area of Birmingham, England.

Two brooks, arising at Kingstanding and Bleak Hill, Erdington, respectively, feed first Witton Lakes (previously known as Upper Witton Reservoir and Middle Witton Reservoir), then overspill into Brookvale Park Lake, before reaching the River Tame, and ultimately the North Sea, via the Trent and Humber.

The brooks are natural; the lakes were created at the end of the 19th century to supply drinking water for Birmingham. They were then in the countryside, and the water relatively clean. Industrialisation and urban sprawl led to the water no longer being fit for drinking, so the City turned to the Elan Valley in Wales for a supply.

From 7 October 1909 until 1926, Brookvale Park Lake was used as an open air swimming pool operated by the Birmingham Baths Committee. The lakes and the surrounding area, Brookvale Park, are now maintained as a leisure amenity by Birmingham City Council.

The first ring-necked duck in the West Midlands county was found here in 2001.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Brookvale Park Lake” as reservoir in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Brookvale, Park and Lake.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1909, 1926, 2001—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Brookvale, Park and Lake providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Brookvale Park Lake”, the useful work is to connect “reservoir in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4975188. Authority coordinates are 52.519, -1.865. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 1926 and 2001.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Brookvale Park Lake primary sources, Brookvale Park Lake archive and Brookvale research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Brookvale Park Lake” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.