Traffic levels were high, and the company had to buy 2,000 lockfulls of water in the first year, for which they paid £800 to the Wyrley and Essington Canal.

In 1836, there was still pressure on the water supply, and the engineer William Cubitt was instructed to enlarge the reservoir in May.

[2] The valve gear which controls the flow of water from the reservoir to the canal is believed to be original.

[3] The site has attracted interest from bird-watchers since the 1920s, when the ornithologist Arnold Boyd began visiting it and publishing reports in the magazine British Birds, although he did not reveal its location, as he called it "Bellfields" in the articles.

Studies of the effects of changes in the water level at the reservoir have resulted in the publishing of an ideal regime for such draw-downs to maximise the benefits to wildlife.