D.H. Lawrence's Willey Water (Moorgreen Reservoir)

The jewel in the crown of my trip to Eastwood was probably walking a few miles outside the town centre to Moorgreen Reservoir. 

The Blue Line Trail leaflet reveals that Moorgreen Reservoir was built at the end of the 18th century "to supply water to the Nottingham Canal". 

Even today, the reservoir, "surrounded by trees with hills to the north", still holds a "charm" or enchantment that drew Lawrence "to use the setting" as a model place in some of "his stories".

For example, the leaflet highlights that Moorgreen Reservoir is the model for Nethermere in The White Peacock and Willey Water in Women in Love.

While approaching the reservoir, it was nice to see an information board notice about Lawrence's love of Moorgreen Reservoir and the countryside around the Eastwood area:

It stood near a kind of impressive-looking gate house:

Which reminded me of a Dutch windmill or Kentish hop place.

At first, it was difficult to get a good look at the reservoir as it was kind of fenced off.

Without reading too much into things, I encountered a quite tall, bearded, young man (not altogether dissimilar to Lawrence in appearance) who simply told me to hop over the fence to get a better view of the reservoir:

 

And at the water's edge, I could more clearly muse about the Ursula Brangwen-Rupert Birkin scene at Willey Water from Women in Love.

This is the scene where, from a distance, Ursula sees Birkin throwing stones into the water in a rather nervous and frustrated manner.

And when Ursula confronts Birkin, the pair heatedly discuss the Great Magna Mater figure, a destructive female force that has the potency to obliterate the male principle of existence (making the desired achievement of male-female polarity and harmony impossible, of course).

After seeing Moorgreen Reservoir and musing over the Ursula-Birkin scene, it was time to head back towards Eastwood town centre, as I wanted to visit the cemetery and library there.

Not long after setting off back, I saw signs which reminded me of the area's mining industry past:

So glad that I got up to Moorgreen Reservoir and managed to get a proper view of the place.