DERELICT SUNDAY - ON A COLD AND FROSTY MORNING

As we have been invited out for lunch after church, I decided that I needed to get my Blip done early today, so just after 7 a.m. we were out and about – and the temperature was -1˚ and very frosty, but the sun was shining, so at first it didn’t seem that cold.  It was great to be up to see the sunrise and I was amazed at how many people were out at this early hour – there were a lot of anglers, and a few dog walkers but also many Nepalese people walking and they all said “Good Morning” very politely and several of them bowed.  

We live very near to this country park on the eastern outskirts of Swindon known as Coate Water.  It was originally a feeder reservoir for the Wilts & Berks canal that flowed through Swindon in the 19th century, but when the canal was no longer being used, Swindon Corporation bought the site in the early 1900s and in 1914, it became a Pleasure Park with changing rooms and a diving board at a time when swimming in the lake was a popular leisure pursuit.  

Coate Water is very well kept and is a popular place for anglers, families, walkers, joggers, playing Pitch and Putt or just wandering round to enjoy the beauty and you can even have a ride on the miniature railway.   At the far end of the lake is a large nature reserve where there are two bird hides and there are often up to a dozen herons nesting in the tops of the trees.  Mr. HCB often walks around this area, and goes off for hours with his telescope and binoculars – he tells me he has seen a kingfisher on several occasions, but I have yet to see one or get a photograph!  It’s a great place for seeing a great variety of different birds and there are plenty of bird tables dotted around where there always seems to be a plentiful supply of food, so many birds come to visit.

There is a café that is open quite often, but it wasn’t open this early in the morning, but I understand it is open on Christmas Day for those who want to walk off the excesses of their lunch but want a warming cup of tea or coffee.

A few months ago a parking charge was put in place and there was quite a lot of anger about it, but these parks don’t stay as beautiful as they are without someone paying.  We are fortunate to be able to walk there, but this morning, I must admit, we drove and because we didn’t intend staying that long, Mr. HCB dropped me off, went and bought a Sunday paper so by the time he got back, I had finished.  I am so grateful that he is so supportive and willing to help in any way.

This is the diving board at Coate Water which may not look it, but is now derelict, and interestingly, is a Grade II Listed Structure since it is one of only four in the country - I have put another one in as an extra, taken from a different angle.  Apparently, the first diving board was made of wood in 1922, but it was replaced in 1935 by the current Art Deco style concrete diving board.  In the late 1950s it was found that the water was polluted, so swimming was banned in the lake - I actually went to school with someone who contracted polio from swimming at Coate Water - but the concrete diving board remains and has become one of Swindon’s iconic landmarks.  The only visitors it has now are birds and water fowl.

“Never forget we are as different
     as the colors of sunrise
          and these differences
               make us who we are.
Unique,
     Amazing,
          Beautiful.
Be who God made YOU to be!”
Karen Kostyla