Creating lake at city park dredged on for years, but those involved dug in and helped to create a lasting legacy
Bygones contributor Brian Stubbs looks at how the lake many of us have enjoyed at Markeaton Park over the years was constructed
AS a child, living on Mackworth Estate, I would spend many happy hours at Markeaton Park, with my friends, especially fishing in the lake. We had been told the lake had been manually dug out, in the 1930s and this idea imprinted itself in my mind, imagining hundreds of workmen stood in a long line, slowing digging their way along the length of the lake. Its construction was a great achievement and the story of how it came about is a fascinating one.
In November 1929, Derby Borough Council announced it was considering an offer made by the Rev Clarke Maxwell, vicar of Mackworth, who had inherited Markeaton Hall and parkland from the late Emily Mundy.
He offered to sell 110 acres of parkland surrounding the hall and gardens for £17,400, a price that was probably half what it could have fetched on the open market.
In return for buying the parkland, Maxwell would then donate the mansion house and Italian gardens to the town of Derby, provided the whole area was used as a public park.
It took until May of the following year for the contract to be completed but, over the next 12 months, a lot of work was carried out to clear and drain marshy areas and planting and landscaping took place so that by June of 1931 the park was ready to be opened to the public.
On June 30, Markeaton Park was officially opened by Prince George, the Duke of Kent, who spent that day in Derby.
After visiting the Rolls-Royce works he travelled around the ring road which was thronged with cheering schoolchildren, to Markeaton, where he was met by the mayor and introduced to Clarke.
The Prince then travelled on to Darley Park, which he also officially opened that day.
Although many local people began to use the park, by March of the following year, it was reported in the Derby Telegraph under the headline “Markeaton Park’s future in doubt”, that although the parks department had done a lot to improve the grounds, economic constraints meant that none of the £12,000 allocated to create a new lake for boating and fishing, had been forthcoming.
However, the parks committee did decide that unemployed men would be utilised and paid wages instead of relief. In September 1932 it was announced the scheme would have to be deferred until the following year when, hopefully, funds would be available.
In February 1933, an article appeared in the Derby Telegraph by the fishing correspondent who went by the pen name of “Stickleback”. Under the headline “Trout fishing for Derby anglers”, he detailed proposals by Derby Corporation to transform the existing lake in Markeaton Park into a trout fishery.
In March, an application was made by the corporation for the construction of a boating lake and that facilities were to be provided for trout fishing.
There had always been a small lake where it was now proposed to create a much larger one.
Markeaton Brook, flowing down from Kedleston, joined the Mackworth Brook near Markeaton Lane and flowed through to the parkland near the hall.
The old lake was about four acres in area and much narrower than the proposed new one and was often marked on old maps as Markeaton Pond. Over many years, it had become badly silted up and neglected and was of no use for boating or fishing.
In the early 1800s, as part of a flood relief scheme for Markeaton Park, the course of the brook had been diverted to flow about 100 yards to the north and parallel to the lake, while an offshoot stream from the brook continued to flow through the lake. The new line of Markeaton Brook then passed under the junction of Queensway and Kedleston Road and on towards the Mackworth recreation ground, where it rejoined the stream coming down from Markeaton.
This new route now became the official Markeaton Brook.
The scheme for the recutting of the lake was agreed in July 1933 at a cost of £8,000 and would provide 80 unemployed men with work for six months. An excavator would be used to carry out the dredging.
Many of these men had already been working on Derby’s Riverlands Scheme, which had been set up in 1930 to deepen and widen several miles of the River Derwent in Derby, which would stop flooding and enable local firms to set up units on reclaimed land.
A government grant of £4,000 was given to the corporation when the Ministry of Health approved the scheme to help cover the original cost of £12,000.
In mid-September, the Derby Telegraph reported: “The work of converting the silted watercourse in Markeaton Park into an attractive lake suitable for boating and fishing has begun, and it is expected the conversion will be completed early next year”.
The article featured a map showing the outline of the new lake and within it the boundary of the existing lake. At 120 yards wide and 600 yards in length, it would cover an area of eight acres.
A footpath was also to be laid along the Kedleston Road side from the newly built Queensway to the waterfall near the hall.
The article continued: “The lake will greatly enhance the beauty of the park. It will have a natural appearance, for natural features now there are to remain, suitable trees are to be left on islands in the lake. The silted brook course between the waterfall near the hall and the new Queensway is to be cleared and marshland is to be excavated in order that the pool be widened on the park side.”
Once the stream had been diverted and the old lake drained, work began in earnest.
In December, Stickleback reported: “The Markeaton scheme is proceeding apace, though nothing could look less like the haunt for trout than the picture presented by the bleak, torn landscape at present.”
He went on to describe the scarred fields with grubbed-out tree roots seeming, at the moment a far cry from the beauty spot intended, but finished on a hopeful note: “Yet with the advent of summer skies, it is hoped the transformation will be complete and that a vista of green banks skirting rippling water, alive to the “plopping” of trout, will present itself to the visitor”.
Local children were quick to take advantage of all the tree felling that was taking place as it was noted they were collecting many of the offcuts from the grubbed up willow trees to take home and decorate as Christmas logs.
By April 1934 the banks of the
new lake were being levelled, ready for grass seeding and some planting.
Since the park’s opening, entrances at Kedleston and Ashbourne roads had resulted in many thousands of people visiting, to walk round the flower displays, the waterfall and enjoy the café, which had opened inside the hall.
There were even band concerts to listen to on Sunday afternoons.
Once the new lake opened it was hoped that the added attraction of boating and later fishing would ensure even more visitors and turn Markeaton into Derby’s most popular park.
On the evening of Wednesday, July 4, 1934, the Mayor of Derby, Alderman H Slaney, officially declared the new Markeaton Lake open as he sat in the prow of a motorboat with his wife and daughter, taking a trip on the water, with thousands of cheering people lining the banks.
Speeches had been made from the bandstand and the Derby Military Band, under the direction of Captain J Ollerenshaw, played a selection of rousing tunes, including one of his own compositions called “Markeaton”, which he had written specially for the occasion.
After boating round the lake, the Mayor entertained the guests to refreshments in Mansion House.
In November work began to create the trout fishery. Initially, this involved the netting of as many coarse fish as possible from the lake, and around 2,000 were removed and transferred to the River Derwent at Darley Park.
Then in March 1935, 500 Rainbow trout were introduced. The fish had been donated by WG&H Wathall, the local Derby funeral directors, who owned a hatchery near Ashbourne. A further 500 brown trout were promised and soon, anglers were able to start fishing for them at a charge of three shillings and sixpence per day.
While the gift of trout was appreciated, doubts as to whether a trout fishery could be sustained, began to be voiced, with many local anglers suggesting the rainbow trout would be unlikely to breed as it was known that a number of pike still remained in the lake.
Many members of local fishing clubs had always, historically, fished the rivers and canals for coarse fish and were probably sceptical of the idea of fly-fishing in the lake.
But many did try it and reported good catches being made. However, by November 1936, a two-day netting operation was again carried out and a staggering 15,000 coarse fish removed.
These fish would have come down from the Markeaton Brook when it flooded, which was quite frequently.
It seemed that in Markeaton Park, the coarse fish were becoming the dominant species in the lake and perhaps the days of the trout fishery were numbered.
In February 1937 under the headline “Markeaton trout scheme fails”, “Stickleback” lamented that the trout fishery proved to be unsuccessful due to the large amount of natural food that was coming down into the lake from the brook, which stopped the trout from rising to flies.
Also, there was the ever present danger of the pike, which were still in evidence.
The course fish in the lake were breeding very quickly in these conditions and, despite several netting attempts, were increasingly outnumbering the trout.
Over the next 18 months, flyfishing gradually ceased and coarse fishing took over and in August of 1938, the parks superintendent Mr TS Wells announced the daily coarse fishing charge would be one shilling, or sixpence after 6pm.
The lake closed for boating in September of 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War and the park was under military occupation for the next seven years.
Finally, in 1947, it was handed back to the corporation, who were immediately faced with having to re-dredge the lake as it had become so silted up that boating and fishing had become almost impossible. Work started in May of that year.
Before draining off the water 10,000 fish were safely removed and stored ready for reintroducing once the work was completed.
Fishing was resumed later in the year and a fleet of new rowing boats were ready to be used the following year. By 1950 there was even a motorboat taking groups around the lake, which was so popular, it remained a feature of the lake for many years to come.
During the succeeding decades the lake continued to provide the people of Derby with boating and fishing and even some ice skating in the winter months, always supervised by park officials who immediately stopped it when the ice was deemed to be too thin as, in the past, many over enthusiastic skaters often ended up with wet feet!
In the early 1970s dredging was again undertaken as the water levels dropped alarmingly due to silting, to the point where the fish population all but disappeared.
In recent years the water has come under the control of the Earl of Harrington Club who have carried out some much needed bankside work, such as cutting back overhanging trees and, together with help from the environment agency, planting up the margins to encourage wildlife and protect fish.
The club have also carried out some restocking with young carp.
It does seem that a certain amount of dredging work is required again to deepen some areas of the lake and encourage fish to thrive. It is costly, but in return it would ensure a worthwhile lasting legacy, as originally envisaged all those years ago by those men with spades.