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Blue Lake in Earlier Times
Blue Lake in May 2004
Blue Lake - A Vision
Blue Lake Restoration in Progress
Images from this project
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Blue Lake in May 2004
Location: Redcar and Cleveland
This is Blue Lake in May 2004.
The approach to Blue Lake is along a track, once the site of a railway to Cod Hill ironstone mine. The track can be found by taking the path through a gate to the west of Hutton Village Road opposite the drive to The Timber House. Follow the path from the gate keeping to the left. You will see a stile by a gate. This leads to the trackbed of the old mine railway.
 After a gentle climb of about two hundred metres you will find Blue Lake on the right. The lake is now filled with silt and overgrown. It has been estimated that the silt is 3.2 metres deep. A major task will be to remove the silt. The outlet pipe is buried in the silt and the wooden pillars which once supported the pier are hidden in the vegetation.
The water was retained by a clay dam. There was a sluice at the end of the dam which is now in a bad state. This will need rebuilding.
 The spillway from the sluice had brick sides and a concrete base. One side and part of the base remains; the other side has been washed away. A deep fissure has been formed in the bed of the spillway. Restoration will require that the fissure is filled with clay and compacted, the concrete base is renewed and the walls repaired and renewed as necessary.
The base of the spillway can be clearly seen. It will need clearing and the stonework repaired as necessary.
 The lake had a bypass channel which flowed along the bank opposite to the approach track. It is brick lined and would have flowed down to join the spillway. The bypass channel is now completely blocked and will need to be cleared.
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