THE DREDGING OF THE LAKE

Since the lake was built in the 17th hundreds it was maintained and landscaped throughout the years , in the late 60s early 70s the lake had silted up and most of it was covered in weed and Lillie’s, the vast reed beds around the lake edges had grown yards out into the lake

The lake had become very shallow in places and we believe it was only a couple of feed deep especially by the castle.

In 1974 the decision was made to dredge the lake and remove the weed and most of the reed beds, we have acquired some photographs of the dredging from the estate which shows the boats and work being carried out, as you can see in the photos two boats were used, one for the main dredging of the lake and one for reed cutting and dredging.

We are not quite sure how much silt; mud, weed and reeds were removed but believe it to be many hundreds of tonnes, the raised areas around the lake today are where most of the silt was put. On speaking to various people who remembered this said the smell from the silt and rotting weed was really bad.

MANY THANKS TO SHERBORNE CASTLE ESTATE FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHS

More information on the dredging will be on our sherborne lake page of the website when it becomes available