[If any of the following does not make sense, then read Part #1 / Part #2 first]

Another survey yesterday (Thursday 30 March 2017) & I think that I can now say that the trace from source (or rather, both sources) & the beginning of the line of Ouse Dyke can be established. I needed to return to determine the line of the dyke from the Southern Basin to the beginning of it’s culvert, and then it’s passage between Lambley Lane & Jessops Lane. I’ve not only done both, but have met residents (and in particular a former Gedling Colliery miner) who have told me their memories from 40 years ago (1970s) as children or young men when the Ouse was placed in a culvert, and thus where it now travels, confirmed it’s course within Gedling Country Park and some have expressed concerns that the many streams that fed it may currently be undermining the culvert.

Below is a summary, and then horrible amounts of detail, of those findings:–

Summary

There are 2 streams that are the source for Ouse Dyke:–

1. A stream to the west (name currently unknown) that originates within Mapperley Golf Course, empties into a culvert just north of Kneeton Close, and then travels south and east along the line of a stream which was part of the northern boundary of Gedling Village. After crossing at the dip in Arnold Lane the stream (now culvert) ran almost due east-west and met the 2nd stream in the middle of what is now Lambley Lane Recreation Ground.
2. The eastern stream originates now as a Northern Retention Basin, which overflows into a Southern Retention Basin, which itself overflows into a dyke, which enters a culvert at it’s southern end and flows down to the original line of Ouse Dyke to a bridge across the lowest point of Lambley Lane, then south to Willow Park.

Detail

Detail on the western source is well covered at the end of Part #1 and the beginning of Part #2, so this detail will concentrate on the eastern source, the amalgamation of the two sources + it’s passage through to Willow Park.

Important note:– I made the survey below when the weather was dry & the water was low; even so, it was more than a touch treacherous. Surveying this or similar areas in other conditions is an excellent way to drown and/or break limbs. You perform all such efforts at your own risk & expense. You have been warned.

Historically the eastern source originated upon what is now known as Gedling Country Park, and in particular upon the higher parts to the North & East of that land. This entire locality of Nottinghamshire is geologically composed of layers of Sandstone & Clay. Clay is impervious to water, so that structure leads to the land having many springs.

In more recent times, the Digby Coal Company sunk it’s pits in that area, and deposited it’s spoil on land to the north of Glebe Farm (the miner told me that in his working life he watched as an abandoned farmhouse on the hillside above the West fields was steadily buried - it now no longer shows). Springs are a terrible danger for Spoil Heaps, and The Environment Agency (original: Severn Trent Water) have used Ouse Dyke as part of it’s water-management regime.

The section of the map known as Solar Power Plant has been extensively filled with dykes which drain down to two Detention Lagoons to the west & south. The photograph below looks across the south basin at one of the two overflow channels between the higher north basin & itself:–

The next photograph is from the other side of the same Southern Basin, looking across to the very position from which the first photo was taken. There were 2 moorhens on the water just before I took the photo, and one dived down just as I pressed the shutter (it was hiding it’s embarrassment at the fact that I left my finger in view). If you look at the shore immediately beyond the circles that it left in the water you will see an overflow channel which empties on the further side into Ouse Dyke:–

So the North Basin overflows into the South Basin, and it overflows into a concrete channel which, the miner informed me, follows the exact path that Ouse Dyke took in his youth. This is the point where the overflow channel empties into the dyke:–

…and now some of the path through the scrub (and yes, I forced myself through bramble & thick brush to convince myself that I was tracking the real McCoy the whole route) (the path is more complicated than a single line, and lots & lots of other pipes also empty into this section of dyke) (I had a great time!):–

The drain is not very long at this point; this is at the end, looking back the other way, just before it enters a 6’ / 2m high culvert:–

And here is a close-up of the culvert:–

The retired miner told me that Ouse Dyke ran “alongside the old railway” (that is the old mineral railway which Gedling Council have safe-guarded from development as a possible extension for the Nottingham Tram). The short section of drain photographed above runs parallel to that previous railway line, but stops short just before where the safe-guarded section stops. On the other side of where the line of the railway was is a cutting in the land. I explored it & found yet another man-hole cover for the culvert, at about the same height as the culvert, with a strong noise of flowing water above it (this was the manhole that I discussed with STW in Part #2). Here is it’s photo (I have zero idea as to where the basin of water came from!):–

As spoken about in earlier parts, the culvert follows the original line of Ouse Dyke through (what is now) a Recreation Park. There are two further manhole-covers within the park, with the southern one being the point at which the two source-streams currently & historically united. The stream (and now culvert) continued south to the lowest part of Lambley Lane, where an old bridge carried the lane across the stream. The stream is gone & the bridge is mostly buried, but enough shows to give some indications of the stream that once flowed openly beneath it (this photo is from the southern side of the bridge):–

[continued in Part #4]

Update 4 July 2022

Mapillary has changed it’s download URLs & therefore all links within my diaries that used photos stored in Mapillary in the old format are broken. I’m slowly going through to update them. The new URLs are terrifyingly long, but show OK on my screen (and I hope also on yours).