Boating Lake at Bracewell

[DeborahJRushworth]

I got such good responses to my last question I thought I'd ask another, with thanks to all local historians out there.
My Dad said he remembered going on a boating lake in Bracewell and that he had a photo taken there, but we can't find it and we couldn't see anything in Bracewell when we drove through a while ago. From an earlier post on the site I read of a boating lake and tennis courts that had closed down in 1939 when the war started so that's probably it but I don't know where it was.

[Wendyf]

Have you seen the picture showing the boating lake that Stanley posted in his article Bracewell Village 3?
Here

[Stanley]

If you go to Bracewell you can still see the depression where the lake was.



This section of the Bracewell Hall sale document in 1874 shows the lake clearly.

[DeborahJRushworth]

Thank you Stanley and Wendy. I will have a walk round. Pity it was drained it looks a nice spot for a bit of rowing and a picnic in the summer sun.

[Stanley]

It was handy for other things as well. I remember some time in the late 50s or early 1960s we got news that a local serving police officer had cut his throat and attempted to drown himself in the lake after being caught out bothering with a young lady. He survived. I never saw any reports of this in the paper but believe it was true.

[DeborahJRushworth]

Thanks Stanley. That suggests the lake was still there in the 1960s? I'll take a walk round there very soon.

[Stanley]

Not absolutely sure of the date but I think I had bought Hey Farm by then and that was 1959. I doubt if it would be the original size by then, probably silted up.