Tantalising tractors and colossal catfish are all part of the allure of Bedfordshire’ s Blue Lagoon, says Patrick Holliday
COMPETITION
Patrick Holliday
Rail wagon relics
The guru of the Blue Lagoon
Tantalising tractors and colossal catfish are all part of the allure of Bedfordshire’ s Blue Lagoon, says Patrick Holliday
Briefing: The Blue Lagoon at Arlesey in Bedfordshire has been my destination for lots of fun and underwater adventures over many years. In part, that’ s because of the remnants of industrial history and freshwater marine life: For me it’ s also down to a friendship that developed there.
The dive: From the surface, it’ s a lake that looks like many others dotted across the countryside. Walk across this area
38 and the ground beneath your feet is most likely clay, which is why brickmaking was in abundance here from the Victorian period onwards and led to clay pits and the factories / railways to support them popping up. Arlesey’ s cement works provided limestone for nearby kilns and employment for the townspeople for many years, until closure in the 1930s. In a story repeated across the land during the 20th Century, at Arlesey the pumping stopped, the pit was left to fill with water, and a new lake left to hide all traces.
About ten years ago Alan handed me a map, and asked if I’ d be interested in diving the Blue Lagoon? His sketch – drawn by himself in 1991 – showed huts, railway wagons, even a tractor dotted about the place. Naturally, I was IN- the caveat was we needed to be up early( and off-site again early) on a Sunday morning, for access reasons. This quickly became every Sunday,
The legendary wels catfish
for years: it didn’ t feel like there was an inch of the lake we hadn’ t visited, and equally there always seemed to be something new undiscovered.
There were buried sleepers. Railway wagons, and some not on the map. A large hopper used for sorting spoil was a rediscovery. Telegraph poles. The pump house huts gradually collapsed over time.
Nature had taken over too. Pike, tench and roach. Alan and I ascended up a bank once and startled three large carp. Piece de resistance was the six-foot wels catfish, which I believed was folklore until we began seeing it regularly. The flora changed with the seasons, with weeds dying back during winters to reveal stark topography before renewal in the spring. Year-round, we dived it before the sun had risen, sometimes to the light of a brilliant Venus. Occasionally, thick fog thwarted diving. We even dived it during a storm once, cautiously entering as the white horses broke over us.
We explored Arlesey by drone, by DPV, by home-made ROV. It was a test bed for new drysuits, wetsuits, torches, cameras, even home-made dive kit. Dawn on Sunday was our Saturday afternoon, and we couldn’ t wait for kick-off each week.
Debrief: For health reasons Alan no longer dives, though he kindly still volunteers to be dive manager at Arlesey. On the rare occasion I dive there now, we share a knowing look and an‘ OK’ signal before I head off into the Blue Lagoon. Perhaps I’ ll find that elusive tractor this time, for Alan’ s sake …