Witton Lakes

Nowadays Witton Lakes are nature conservation and recreation areas in Erdington but they were originally created as reservoirs to supply drinking water to Birmingham fed by two brooks in Kingstanding and Erdington.

However as the city expanded and enveloped the reservoirs (which were originally in a fairly rural area outside the city limits) pollution made the water undrinkable and the city turned to Wales for its water supply (where it still largely comes from now).

Witton Lakes are ironically not exactly in Witton but very close to the the district. Witton was a very sparsely populated area consisting of a few farms, with a recorded population of only a few hundred as late as 1871 when it was incorporated first into Erdington, then Aston Manor then finally Birmingham in 1911.