For the last two evenings I have had a few hours fishing at a local man made Lake that I only discovered by pure serendipity about five years ago.
My BiL (Dave) told me the story behind a Pike that was on the wall of a pub in Tutbury in a glass frame for many decades. It transpired that a local lad who was a glass cutter at the Webb Corbett Factory (now flats) caught the Pike when out poaching with Dave one night in a brook near Hilton where there was a small pool caused by an old works dam. Circa 1968-70)
The lad Neil Wheal (sadly deceased) was also an amateur Taxidermist hence the Pike on display in the pub as he was at one time associated with a barmaid at the pub a stones throw from the old glassworks.
As I grew up close to this area I wanted to find out where this pool was as I only knew the Brook as it used to flood part of Hilton every few decades. I went onto Google Maps/Satelite and found this huge lake that you cannot see from any nearby roads except possibly from the newish (30 yrs?) A50 By-Pass.
I drove out to where I thought the Lake was circa 2019, the access road was gated with a lock & chain. I climbed the gate and walked about a fifth of a mile down the road to reach a lafge notice board that gave details of the fishing club that owned the Lake.
I duly paid my £35 a year membership I am now in my fourth year as a member - the price went up to £40 for 2024/5. It transpires that when they were building the A50 the Contractors dug out free gravel for use in the road construction. In the 1950/60s there were a number of Gravel Works in the Hilton Area with a nearby Concrete Works.
What was left behind after the A50 was completed were a few houses that were in the end not demolished but sold off leaving this one area of about 4 or 5 Acres of land with a big hole in it full of construction debris. A couple of blokes from the Derby Area bought the plot and in a couple of years it became a private fishing club.
The place is full of wild life plus I saw my first ever Red Kite flying overhead a few years ago - probably out on a day trip from further north.
PS Could not load all my fishing tackle on the 400 so went in the car - does this qualify for Out & About.
Sutton Lane Lake by
Macabe Thiele, on Flickr
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