The Requirement: -
The client had a sizeable plot of land in a small valley that had a spring bubbling up at the top of the valley generally only during the winter months. Many years before the spring had been used to feed some small water cress beds that had been dug in a terraced system down the valley, the client had periodically had a go at digging one or two cress beds to create small ponds but they failed to dig deep enough so when the spring stopped flowing the water in the ponds evaporated quickly.
Burley Aquatic Developments was consulted with regards to potential design ideas and suitability for commercial application whereby the client would earn revenue from any water bodies created. Several possibilities existed but as the water spring is a header spring for one of the famous Hampshire chalk stream environments (River Dever) it was agreed that a trout fishery would provide scope for some yearly revenue to be earned from the fishery.
Solution: -
Various legislative permissions were explored, negotiated and agreed with the Environment Agency and Local Council Planners to achieve the trout fishery complex.
Four lakes were created utilising the old water cress beds but greatly enlarged. The lakes were dug much deeper than before to ensure suitable volumes of cooler water were held in the lakes during the warmer months when the spring which feeds the lakes often stopped flowing. All the excavated spoil was used around the lake complex to create various shaped and sized banks which provide very pleasing glimpses of the four lakes.
The four lake complex is such a success that the client has chosen to not take the commercial route and open as a Trout Fishery, much to the envy of many the lakes are enjoyed only by the client, his family and close friends.
