Digging a lake - is it possible

[montygti]

Ive got 10 acres of land and in one corner it floods throughout the winter so i want to construct a little lake about 1/2 acre. The land is top soil with clay underneath. What i dont know is whether the clay is suitable, Can any groundworkers give me any advice. Can i get a someone in to drill soil samples and tell me or is this unnecessary. i havent got planning yet as i dont know whether it can be done. I dug a 8 x 8 meter hole last year about 1.5m deep and this filled up no problem but dried out this summer partly due to me not puddleing the clay. I would be most grateful for any help

[Pablo]

Without seeing the site it's very hard to tell but the first thing you need is running water if you don't have this then the water will stagnate and very little will grow. Clay generally makes a decent lining if you cap it on about 2ft thick the victorians used to pen sheep into it to get it all mushed up but we use digger and water bowsers nowadays. The other option is a liner but that will be very expensive. If you're diverting a watercourse you'll need to conduct all sorts of impact surveys which can be time consuming and expensive. If you have any newts then you're screwed. Planning need to be consulted as do the environment agency etc. If you're putting fish into it then it's best to raise the level over several years to allow a habitat to grow and also have different depths so the temparature can vary. My father has a pond about that size that he has stocked with sea trout brownies and some char it's a great way of passing a few hours trying to catch dinner.

[GB_Groundworks]

if its a good solid boulder clay not a clay sand then you'll be fine, if you take a sample and form it your hand and its like the clay you used at school and you can make a bowl out of it even better. but if you can form it into a tight cohesive ball then it should be ok for holding water.

but ponds can be lined and puddled, as pablo says sheep but cattle are better. they used to run cattle through the newly constructed canals to puddle the clay rather than the navies doing it.

again you'll need a source of water and a drain as evaporation in the summer will drain it and as pablo says you dont want stagnant water, plus you'll need to fence and secure it to stop accidents etc.

have you got somewhere for them to pile the outcomings or landscape them etc near to the site of the lake to reduce costs?

[montygti]

Thanks guys, The pond will not be running as many lakes i fish havent got a water source but have land drains round it to capture the water and put it into the pond. There is a ditch that runs all the way round and to be honest always has water running so if it did get low i could pump water out. All the spoil will be kept on site and used to form a bund all the way round. Im not worried about planning as theyve said it wont be a problem as it encourages nature. The stagnant bit worries me and i dont understand how other lakes stop that. The clay is just like school clay. What do you think my next move should be. Should i get a groundworker in for advice or should i get a soil hole sample drilled. The last thing i want is for it to be dug and dry up. I had one excavator driver in to look at it and he said its will be no problem and should only take a week to dig.

[rab1]

on the stagnant water part, all lochs have a fresh supply of running water be it from a burn etc

[GB_Groundworks]

if you are worried get a structural engineer in, or a good groundworker will have one he uses, he'll be able to tell you for sure.

yeah then get some prices on paper from some groundworkers, inc the drains etc to gather the water.

are you going to stock the lake? then you'll need to make some features in the pond to aid fishing and help the fish. few bunds etc deep holes etc done a few dredgings of fishing ponds and weve got two big carp ponds at over an acre we look after as part of our hillside community.

with some plants and an overflow back into the ditch and the source from your drains you should be ok on the stagnant problem

[montygti]

Thanks GB. Thats what ill do. I would like to stock it as ive already got some fish lined up for me. Im going to leave it up to the excavator driver to create what he wants. Just keep to the rough size of the plans i.e depths etc and height of the bunds.

[GB_Groundworks]

do you get what i mean about having a non flat bottom for the fish like this



as opposed to a smooth bottom like this

[montygti]

Yes i got what you mean. That would be perfect for what i would like, just a smaller version. Is that one you built?

[GB_Groundworks]

no i robbed that off the net from a google image search, just to illustrate what i meant.

[London Stone Paving]

My father has a pond about that size that he has stocked with sea trout brownies and some char it's a great way of passing a few hours trying to catch dinner.

Wouldn't mind a bit of that Pablo :p

[London Stone Paving]

Cracking project btw Monty. Where abouts are you?

[Mikey_C]

profile says Bath

[daysleeper]

Just to resurrect this a bit... might be worth checking if there is anything under the ground that anyone would want... mate of mine wanted a lake, so he lent the land to a gravel extraction company for 24 months. By the end of it he had a beautifully landscaped lake and a new road onto the back of his land. They sorted all the planning and other paperwork.