OneGuyFromBarlick

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.