Bewl Water is an internationally important ecological site and major recreation centre.

The landscape design was by Dame Sylvia Crowe DBE, a renowned, internationally respected landscape architect. In 1971, Dame Sylvia Crowe said her aim at Bewl Water was ‘to mend the organic structure of the countryside where it has been disrupted by the coming of the reservoir, and to accept the water as a natural feature rather than a recent and unnatural intrusion’ This was achieved by tree planting, by hiding car parks behind curving banks, by designing buildings in local styles, by planting flood tolerant species on the water margin, and by using agricultural fencing instead of the urban fencing which typified pre­ 1960 reservoirs.’