Well it turns out that England is full of reservoirs! Apparently there are only, and literally, 1 or 2 lakes in the whole of the country. So that meant a vast programme of reservoir construction, much of which was done in Victorian times.
Anyway we certainly have our fair share around Harrogate and the Yorkshire Water Board allows walkers and fishermen (I haven't seen a fisherlady so far), access to their perimeters. Generally the walking is superb on account of the lake like scenery, and the walks are not too hilly!
Last week I walked around Eccup Reservoir on the Harewood Estate. The walk often took me a little way from the water's edge but was a beautiful trundle through fields of wheat,
country lanes and beautiful water views.
As almost always in this crowded country human habitation is never far away, and in this case it was only about half a mile away
at Alwoody, outside Leeds.
But I could have been a hundred miles from anywhere. We often find ourselves asking where the 60,000,000 people are. The answer, of course is in the high rise and bounded cities. 
Much angst is coming I think, as the Government wants to use green-belts to provide cheaper housing. And it is sobering to think that every single thing, beautiful or not, on this walk, had been created or planted by man. Maybe even the sky.
