[2] The reservoir is also home to Bartley Sailing Club and Andrew Simpson Centres Birmingham.

[3] [4] Most of the land occupied by Bartley Reservoir was in the parish of Northfield, originally in Worcestershire.

However, the south-west end of the reservoir overlapped into the parish of Frankley, in Worcestershire (Hereford and Worcester, from 1974).

Shortly after the completion of the Elan Valley Reservoirs in the early 1920s, it became apparent that more storage capacity would be required to maintain the daily supplies needed by Birmingham.

The contract for the construction of the reservoir was let by Birmingham Corporation Water Department in February 1925 to Edmund Nuttall, Sons and Co. Ltd., of Manchester, and the Francois Cementation Company undertook all cementation.