Deeping Lakes Nature Reserve

Nature Reserve Deeping Lakes

The visitors’ route is around 1 mile in length to the main bird hide overlooking the ‘The Lake’ - says Dave Vandome, Volunteer Nature Reserve Manager

The nature reserve is located just south of the automated rail crossing in Deeping St James, it consists of two quite different areas, ‘The Lake’, part of Deeping Gravel Pits SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), was quarried in the 1870’s - 1890’s and the newer Welland Bank quarry, which was worked in the 1990’s. Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust’s acquisition of part of the site was made possible by grants (£165,000) awarded by HLF (Heritage Lottery Fund) and (£91,096) ALSF (Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund).

The reserve opened in 2004, but a lot of work had been done before, including path creation, fence and bridge installation plus building the bird hides. Work to establish the reserve was largely done by volunteers. Routine management work and work to improve the reserve for wildlife is still done by volunteers who fund raised for and built an artificial sand martin bank, and installed two artificial otter holts, both very successful projects.

Wildlife on the reserve includes large numbers of ducks, swans, geese and waders. These ground nesting birds are prone to predation, so it important to keep potential nesting sites clear of trees – trees give predators like crows and magpies a convenient perch to look for lunch! There are wooded areas as well, the railway land to the north of the reserve, and the wooded parts of the visitors’ route, for instance.

The visitors’ route is around 1 mile in length, taking visitors to the main bird hide overlooking the ‘The Lake’ and gives good views of the different areas, without disturbing the wildlife too much.

DEEPING LAKES OPEN DAY, 10.30am – 4.00pm Sunday 7 June. Trust sales, refreshments, children’s’ activities, excellent home-made cooking and locally grown plants will be on sale.

The Lakes - the back story

A tranquil setting, the silence only interrupted by birdsong, the rustling of leaves and the occasional flapping of wings. But it was not always so. In the mid 1800s brickworks, where the boathouse now stands, were established on the Deeping fishponds and a thriving settlement was erected with shops, stables, a carpenter’s shop and a blacksmith’s forge. Over 100 men were employed. More than two million bricks were produced for the Great Northern Railway, which had purchased 40 acres well known for its gravel and clay. The bricks were used to construct St James Deeping Station along with a goods depot and coal yard, facilitated by lines laid to the brickworks, known locally as ballast pits. The station opened in 1849 on completion of the Peterborough to Spalding Railway line.

After this followed a period of gravel extraction on the site and records show that even up to 1914 men were working at the ballast pits. Many gave up their jobs there to go and serve at the Front.

In 1873 an enormous leg bone, 3 feet long and 3 foot in circumference weighing 2 stone 4 pounds had been dug up at the pits not far from where tremendous horns had been found a few years earlier, 12 foot down in the gravel. They were thought to belong to a species of mammal now extinct. Much later, a tooth of a woolly mammoth thought to be between 20,000 and 50,000 years old was found here.

The adjoining Mere west of the railway is privately owned and was also quarried to provide ballast for the railway until 1875. It was then transformed into a beauty spot, described as a ‘fairy land’ by the owner, Richard Thompson of Stamford. He stocked the lake with fish, planted trees on the island and woodland alongside it. The Lake became a visitor attraction with shooting and fishing parties from London staying in the area. Four large Thames fishing boats were bought up and placed on the Lake,

An article discovered in the Peterborough Citizen from 1932 tells of passengers in the train travelling from Peterborough catching a glimpse of the ponds from the windows of the railway carriage: ‘Wild fowl can be seen swimming on the surface of the water and the woodpecker is laughing boisterously in the trees which surround the decoy. On three or four occasions an odd cormorant has paid a visit to the ponds ... Wild swans in groups of three and four at a time have visited the ponds but Mr Shale, keeper for 30 years, never remembers seeing any wild geese there, although they were not uncommon visitors in the surrounding fens.’

The article recalls that ‘Ruff and Reeve birds that are now almost extinct in the fenland, nested in one of the beds of reeds. The rarity of the event attracted considerable attention. The Ruff is a fine fighting bird and he took umbrage at this intrusion of his domestic retreat and he and his wife deserted their nest.’ The keeper came across the remains of an eel on the banks, captured by an otter. The portion left weighed 3½ lbs so it was estimated that in its entirety the eel would have weighed at least 9½ lbs! In the late 1950s the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust established a bird-ringing trap on the island and between 1964 and 1982 a total of 11,564 ducks were ringed on the island. A pochard ringed in February 1966 was shot in Mogodon, Russia, in September 1968, 8,400 miles from where it was ringed.

After this followed a period of gravel extraction on the site and records show that even up to 1914 men were working at the ballast pits.

Joan Gibbons, a well-respected botanist, noticed the Lake from a train window as she travelled to London in 1966. She later toured the area and listed some of the plants that she had found, including greater spearwort and early marsh orchids. By the time the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust acquired the site, it was overgrown and the wildflowers had gone; happily, with their careful stewardship, they have now returned.