My last survey included the best-surfaced unadopted=yes road that I’ve yet seen:– Waterhouse Lane. In the course of that survey I discovered:–

1. Why Willow Brook was dry
2. Yet another (possibly) stolen footpath

Who stole Willow Brook?

One of the residents on Waterhouse Lane told me that it was so-called due to a Water Pump that originally existed in that lane. Today, that Pump has gone. An old OS map shows a stream falling north to south, eventually along this lane, and finally emptying into Ouse Dyke. Only a bit of that old riverbed remains, and it is dry.

Recently the local School’s caretaker showed me the dry riverbed of that stream (this was taken over the fence from Willow Farm School):–

A very kind lady at 11 Waterhouse let me take a photo of the stream from the bottom of her garden (from the opposite bank to the school), but her plot does NOT include the stream. This is shot over the top of her fence; the stream is supposed to run right-to-left, and the stream-bed is at the base of the tree in the centre of this photo:–

That is NOT a very useful photo & I was having lots of difficulty finding this stream. Some residents told me stories of them or others culverting (parts of) the stream, but that did not answer where the greater part of Willow Brook had gone to. There was also a small — if remote — possibility that it might affect the soon-to-be-built Gedling Access Road (streams rarely just ‘go away’).

Severn Trent Water normally readily answers my queries across the telephone, but this time I was passed around then asked to send an email (to get rid of me). This is the mail that I sent:–

To: Asset Protection Department, STW
Subject: Status of “Willow Brook” Stream + Culverts?
Date: 17:16 24 April 2017

My name is Alex Kemp, and I spend large parts of my time entering homes, etc. into OpenStreetMap (OSM). I’m trying to find the source (and possible culverts) for Willow Brook. There is a (remote) possibility that this search may have some impact upon the Gedling Access Road.

Contact:-

• Tel: +44 (0) 115 987 6543 (number munged)
• Web: osm.org/user/alexkemp

My current survey area is Waterhouse Lane, Gedling, Notts.. A stream is shown on the modern Ordnance Survey map running down part of that lane, beside the Willow Farm Primary School fence (east side). What remains of the stream bed is dry; land-owners upstream appear to have culverted that part of the stream which runs through their property. At the far southern end it runs through a culvert below the (now abandoned) mineral railway line and then into Ouse Dyke.

What is stated above is the part of this story that I know. These are location references to help you to find it:-

• 462211,342685 (drawn from Adopted Highways register: geoserver.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/streetregister/)
• NG4 4BP
• osm.org/way/291378022 (OSM link for Waterhouse Lane)
• osm.org/way/488483839 (OSM link for culverted part of stream)

I’m trying to find the source for this stream (which I’m calling ‘Willow Brook’).

I can find zero references for culverts to this stream north of it’s current position, yet old OS maps clearly show the stream coming down from the north end of the old Gedling Wood, close to the modern Dumble that feeds a stream to Burton Joyce, and to the farmer’s field called ‘two-ponds’:-

• http://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=15&lat=52.9804&lon=-1.0734&layers=6&b=6&point=0,0 (make sure ‘background map’ == ‘OS 1920s’)
• osm.org/way/486960082 (Crock Dumble - feeds Burton Joyce stream)
• osm.org/way/486960089 (Two Ponds)

The modern footpath and hedges follow that old stream path, as does the geology. The Gedling Access Road is going to cut it all in half.

That footpath (from Lambley) passes almost exactly north-south & travels half it’s length through fields & the other half through modern streets & modern Public Footpaths to reach the top of Waterhouse Lane. My assumption is that the old stream did exactly the same, and maybe was the source for the Water Pump that gave the lane it’s name.

Is the northern half of this stream culverted, and where does that terminate? If not, what changes made the stream disappear?

Footbridge Across Willow Brook

Wednesday 26 April: The chap at 21 Waterhouse Lane was most kind & allowed me to photograph the footbridge across the stream:–

He pointed out that his neighbour upstream (which rather confusingly is #33) has the brook culverted, so the stream-flow is very low. However, there was some water on the streambed, which was gratifying.

The footbridge was far more substantial than I expected, and there is even a gate at the far end (padlocked) (it is the school playing field on the other side), which suggests that there may have been a public footpath through that location in the distant past.

See #2 for “Did someone steal a Footpath?”

Update 3 July 2022

Mapillary has changed it’s download URLs & therefore all links within my diaries that use photos stored in Mapillary 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).