Overview

Ladybower Reservoir is the largest of three Reservoirs in the Upper Derwent Valley, famous for their connection to the legendary Dambusters. The scenery is stunning and calming, you can try fly fishing or take a boat ride. A welcoming team of people await to help you. There is a designated Accessibility Coordinator, Troy Chadwick, for the Ladybower Fisheries who will organise an activity that is adapted to you and you will be taken out on the adapted ‘wheelyboat’. This has a ramp on it.

Transport & Parking

There is a designated private area for disabled visitors accessing the fisheries. Tricky to find initially but a after calling Troy, he directed us to the spot within a few minutes.

Access

The team here have done their best to make the place accessible. They have a ‘can do’ attitude here. There is no issue accessing the boat. It was very hot when we visited and the reservoir was unusually low. This meant we needed to get onto the boat using the ‘back up’ route. There was a steep slope to negotiate before getting to the accessible pontoon but usually the water level is much higher and they have an easier access point. However it didn’t matter. The team will help you to the boat and they are all very willing pushers!

Toilets

There is an accessible toilet across the road from the car park next door to the fisheries office . It is up a small incline (see picture) but we managed fine. The toilet is spacious with drop down rails. I don’t recall seeing drop down curbs to cross the road but we were in a manual wheelchair so didn’t look to see if there were any. Troy can let you know if you need to enquire about this.

Staff

Mark, Richard and Troy were great from the minute we got there. Helpful, friendly and calm. If all staff at venues we visited were like this, our life would be much easier! Troy and Richard have a background in care which was evident. I hope the fisheries value these staff members as they are a credit to the place.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

We visited a a group of 10. Two of the group were wheelchair users and 7 of them were children. Mark was great with the kids and let them all have a go at steering the boat which they all loved. I noticed he took great care with safety whilst we were in the boat and talked to us about staying safe around water which reassured me. To see my disabled son driving a boat was something I’ll never forget. We will definitely be visiting again and I thoroughly recommend it! There are some small improvements that could be made with access if they could secure some funding but the attitude of the staff makes up for this.

Photos