Building a lake

Latest Articles

Building a lake

Downsizer Forum Index -> Land Management

Author

Message

MikeB

Joined: 11 Oct 2007
Posts: 17
Location: Staffordshire

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 08 1:03 pm Post subject: Building a lake

Hi all,

We want to excavate a smallish lake around ½ to ¾ of an acre (maybe more). When we did the exploration for building the house (which is around 100m from what will be the edge of the lake) we hit water 500mm under ground level and bedrock at around 1m.

The ground consists of topsoil 300mm, then peat 500mm then clay, not sure yet if bedrock will be at 1m but I am assured it will be now lower than 1.5m.

Our aim is for this to be an ornamental lake with fish and duck stocks for meat, we intend to use the excessive wind in this area to aerate and mover the water so fish stocks will bread. Digging in to the bedrock is no real problem as it is slate so making parts as deep as we want.

Any advice on lake making would be much appreciated

Mike & Family

RichardW

Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 8443
Location: Llyn Peninsular North Wales

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 08 7:13 pm Post subject:
With bedrock & lots of clay you wont need a liner. What about contacting one of those companies that advertise (or did last time I bought it) in CS? They will make the lake / pond for you & then stock it & pay you for any harvested fish. Richard

MikeB

Joined: 11 Oct 2007
Posts: 17
Location: Staffordshire

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 08 9:05 pm Post subject:
Richard, I would be very interested in knowing who these guys are and where to contact them. All info greatly appreciated. Mike

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 08 9:07 pm Post subject:
It sounds like one heck of an undertaking - very best of luck, and keep us informed of how you get on.

RichardW

Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 8443
Location: Llyn Peninsular North Wales

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 08 10:40 pm Post subject:
Just been through a few copies of CS & cant find it so it might have been in the FG of the other farmers mag, which I have just got rid of to make space. Some one must have a back issue they can look at for you. Check THIS out Richard

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Aug 30, 08 10:54 am Post subject:

Building a lake is something high up on my list when we move (actually almost bought a couple of places that had small lakes/large ponds). I don't have any experience but keep my eye out for details. Worth trying to read up as much as possible as there's so much to consider. For example, IIRC some male ducks are very territorial so a plain oval pond will not get many breeding pairs but a pond with an island and heavily scalloped edges should get more breeding pairs.

Have you considered fish for the pot as well, not just the usual trout but something like carp? There an old thread here about it here: https://forum.downsizer.net/about27602.html

A fair bit crops up in Country Smallholding (Alan Beat, one of the regular writers, has built a couple. IIRC one open to nature and one he has to put electric fencing round to stop the otters eating all the fish!). Shooting Times has covered it in the past, both flight ponds and trout fishing ponds.

I'm sure BASC's 'Shooting and Conservation' has covered it and if you're a member it might be worth contacting them to see if they have anyone who can help. There's more info on their site and they have published some books such as 'Ponds and Lakes for Shooting and Conservation'.

Here's their 'Flight Ponds Code of Practice' which might be useful https://www.basc.org.uk/content/flightpondspractice

Some other online stuff that might be useful:

BTCV's 'Waterways & Wetlands' is available online: https://handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/chapter/386

From an advert in Country Smallholding (I've not spoken to them at all): www.landandwaterscapes.co.uk

If I think of anything else I'll add it and please let us know how you get on.

shadiya

Joined: 02 Feb 2008
Posts: 1285

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 08 12:37 pm Post subject:

Have you checked with your local authority about planning permission? I believe anything over half an acre may require it and if you intend stocking it with fish, it may require it. I have spoken to my planning chap as have a similar (long term) plan, there was teeth sucking, lack of enthusiasm and he said he'd have to check.... However, I know Richard Branson dug a pond for wildlife on his place a while back, think about an acre from memory, and got into loads of trouble. If your planning person knows the answers to whether permission is needed, please post, mine is very slow.....

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 08 1:04 pm Post subject:

Have you searched all your local planning applications to see if anyone else has applied? Now most planning is online you can get some reasonable information from other people's plans, including comments made by the planners during their decision making.

I also vaguely recall renovating an existing pond might not need planning, so if you have any very damp areas it might be worth looking for very old maps or photos to see if an pond previously existed on the land.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 08 9:13 am Post subject:
Another source of information is courses run by local smallholder associations. I notice the Devon one, DASH, runs a course covering management, legal permissions etc.

resistance is fertile

Joined: 24 Oct 2008
Posts: 1534
Location: The heart of North Devon

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 08 3:48 pm Post subject:

We built a pond, about 1/2 an acre?, soon after we moved onto our land.

The land was sodden so we just ran all the land drainage ditches into it , picking up as many obvious springs on route as we could.

We are on thick clay sub soil so with a good smearing it was solid and leakproof. Its built into a slope so it was kind of cut and fill leaving a bank at the far side.

Its now populated by ducks, geese herons, dragon and damsel flies galore as well as lilies, bullrushes etc. All self sown etc.

No PP as we figured if anyone asked its a storage for horticultural purposes!

On a visit from the Planning Manager on another issue he loved it, no questions at all!

	Downsizer Forum Index -> Land Management	All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

View Latest Posts