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THE LAGOONS OF ARLESEY
THE LAGOONS OF ARLESEY
I moved to Co-operative Terrace, High Street Arlesey in 1979 I also got a job at Fairfield Hospital on the Maintenance staff. It was about this time I took a little more interest in the two pits that were at the back of the Hospital. I had swam in the Blue Lagoon on those hot summer days, I even spent a whole weekend camping by the side of the lagoon this was before they put double yellow lines on both sides of the road, you couldn't move for cars parked both side of the road who were all at the lagoon swimming. I then in later years met with Arthur the then local fish bailiff who let us in with our equipment to go diving. Arthur told me some of the history, of the clay pit and loaned me some photos. He had local information some I may add was just a fisherman's story.
Some people say that Arlesey sprung-up around the brickworks, this could be true as a brickworks along with Arlesey being three miles long were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1085. So what do we know of the village of Arlesey. It's now a growing town situated in the the county of Bedfordshire and extending for about 3 miles along the River Hiz valley. In historic times, Arlesey was a Royal Manor (Manor of Arleseybury) and also a market town, once known as the most prosperous parish in the area. St Peters Church, situated at Church End of the town was built over 900 years ago by the monks of Waltham Abbey. Within the Domesday Book it is written 'Arlesey Alricesei: Bishop of Durham; Bernard from William d'Eu; Herfast from Nigel d'Aubigny; Wulfsi. 3 mills. Large, straggling brickworks.'
In 1850 the Great Northern Railway opened linking London to the North via York. The railway development encouraged the growth of the brick making industry in Arlesey. It is recorded In 1852 a brickworks was opened in the south of the parish by Robert Beart of Godmanchester who revolutionised brick making by using a mechanical presses to shape the bricks. Previously the clay was puddled (usually with bare feet) and thrown into the brick mould. The wet brick was then carefully stacked into sheds to dry out the excess water before they were fired. This could be days or weeks depending on the weather before a brick was finished. Robert Bearts' method enabled a brick to be pressed and then fired much more quickly. By 1852 Arlesey is recorded as having immense brick works By 1858 the annual production was estimated to be 8,000,000 bricks plus 1,000,000 agricultural drainage pipes. By the late 1860s Beart's had been joined at Arlesey by three other brickworks all ranged alongside the railway. At its height Arlesey had six operational brickworks in the village.
The brick factories of Arlesey had many children working long hours. Dr Barnardo along with friends such as Earl of Shaftesbury and Lord Cairns became responsible for some of the Acts that were put before Parliament to save the lives of children and give them a better life along with giving them an education, such as the Factories Act (Brick and Tile Yards) Extension providing for child and female labour to be regulated. The first Factories act was passed back in 1833 which mostly dealt with children under the age of 9 working in factories. According to a press report of that day, ' on the first day of 1872, 10,000 young children were sent from the brick sheds to school'. This was a big labour loss for the owners. I could not find any information if this had affected the Arlesey Brick and Lime Company. What we do know adult workers left their jobs on the farm and went to work in the brickworks, their wages almost trebled overnight, bringing more wealth to Arlesey.
The Green lagoon that was the clay works directly behind Fairfield Hospital was all dug by hand and is triangular in shape covering some 3 acres in total. The northern end has a shear chalk cliff dropping away to a maximum depth of about 10 mtr and is the deepest part of the old clay works. The eastern side is the shallowest at around 3.5Mtr deep, the western side is a little deeper at 4Mtr. I have dived all around this old clay works which had some time been used as a dump for the then asylum. The chalk that had been dug out by hand was then transported down the hill by gravity on narrow gauge tramway to the brick works on the Hitchin road of Arlesey. In 1857 a second tramway was laid from The Three Counties Asylum to the GNR Line to carry the construction material needed to build the Asylum.
The green lagoon continued to be one source of clay till about 1901 when the clay works was abandoned and they moved to what is known today as the Blue Lagoon which was nearer the brick-works which was down near the GNR railway line. Records show that in 1903 1,500 tons of lime and cement was produced weekly. The chalk filled wagons were hauled up from the bottom of the quarry by a steel cable powered by a stationary steam engine. They were then let down to the works by gravity, a man rode down on the wagons and stopped them just before the Hitchin Road by spragging the wheels. A small steam engine then took them over the road and shunted them up an incline to empty them into the slurry pits. The empty wagons were then hauled back up to the pit by the cable. The road crossing was controlled by a man who signalled to the winding house by a system of bells.
After completion of the Asylum the tram line was used for the transport of goods to the Asylum. The track led into the basement where goods and food was unloaded. most of the track was removed in 1953 leaving small remnants by Hospital boiler house.
For many years the skyline of Arlesey was marked with three chimneys to the back of The old Three Counties Railway station. When they were brought down they were one of the last remnants of the old Brickworks of Arlesey, most of the village turned out to watch them being removed from the skyline. Today all that is left are the two clay pits and a landfill site where the clay was removed. The last brickworks in Arlesey The Butterley Brick Ltd stopped production from its Arlesey plant on the 1st October. 1992.
Note: In 1959 The Three Counties railway station and Arlesey station were closed Under the "Beeching Plan" for passenger traffic on the 5th January and goods traffic on the 28th November 1960. Arlesey station Old Oak Close at Church End re-opened on the 3rd October 1988
So how and when did the pit fill with water? In about 1925 the steam pump that was used to keep the pit dry and workable was coming to the end of its working life and with the cost of a new diesel pump it was decided uneconomical to keep running which marked the end of these clay works in Arlesey, by 1930 the pit was closed and allowed to slowly fill with water over time. Most of the working machinery was left where it stood including an old steam power excavator which had its jib protruding out of the water for many years until it was salvaged in 1977 and was the subject of a Bygones Television programme. As part of the programme the Steam Shovel was fully restored to working order but on its first working pressure test the boiler cracked so was given to a museum of Lincolnshire Life as a static exhibit.
Prior to the Steam Shovel being removed the top of the jib had been used as a diving platform for all the people who spent their summer days swimming. The death rate over the years could be counted on the fingers of your hands, but a tragedy of three children trapped in a car 28th July 2001 made the authorities sit up and take notice of the problem. Sadly a lot of noise was made at the time like all the other deaths, but not much has happened. In 2007 another young life was lost.
During the war years 1938 - 1945 Arlesey was used for the storage of munitions which ran alongside the GNR railway lines. The Army unit that was responsible for the storage also found themselves responsible for all the Unexploded Bombs in the area as well. The UXBs that were made safe were taken to the Lagoons to be destroyed, frequent explosions could be heard in the surrounding villages and towns. It took three months to make the area safe after WWII. The site was then developed for industrial units and was called the Portland Industrial Estate. The area where the Portland silo stood has since been renamed The Crossways Estate. When the silo was removed some old ammunition and hand grenades were found and had to be made safe by way of exploding them by the blue Lagoon. The Bomb disposal squad stayed for quite some time clearing old ordinance.
I had been one of many who used to spend my summer days swimming and diving off the old Steam Shovel whose jib protruded from the water. The photo below while not clear shows quite a few lads diving off the jib and the waters edge packed with swimmers. Some years later I joined the Stevenage Sub Aqua Club in 1984 and spent many hours diving in the Blue Lagoon from my first on 29th May 1985 and other old clay pits in and around Bedfordshire qualifying for my open water diver.
There are many stories to how the Blue Lagoon came to be filled with water, most of them not true. One of the few stories I had started was Fred the Foreman was filling in the weekly times sheets in the hut when he got trapped when the pit filled overnight.
The depth of the Lagoon is normally about 12 Meters at its deepest point which is at the top of the brick wellhead by the side of the hut. One year I did record 13.5Mtrs this was the year when McDonald's was being built in Letchworth and a manikin had been left in the skip. I with one other took the said manikin we had named Fred for a dive down to the hut where we were going to sit him at the table filling in the time sheets as per the story I had started, but some person had removed the table and chair so with the rope I had taken down, I made a noose and hung Fred from the rafters. There he hung and from the doorway it looked quite spooky in the misty green water.
This was on a Monday afternoon of the 23rd June 1986. On the next Sunday the local BSAC dive club from Hatfield who had sole diving rights used to use the lagoon for training, asking a novice diver to enter the hut as part of their qualifying dive. On this occasion they were a little confused if Fred had drowned or died from hanging, apparently Fred was well hung! I was told a young lady went screaming all the way to the surface.
Regarding the old steam crane as the locals called it, It was in fact not a crane but a excavator, sometimes called a steam navvy. (see plate below) In 1977 Ray Hooley and his team salvaged the excavator from the lagoon, part of the an Old Bygones TV programme. it was taken to Lincolnshire for restoration work. After many hours rebuilding the the Navvy the boiler split and was donated to a museum as it was the only one of it type in excitance It was made by Ruston Proctor Crane Navvy in 1909 and had the serial number 306.
Click here to view a map of the blue Lagoon Arlesey. Please note this was drawn in 1989 so some marks may have rusted away or been removed. This is the original map and quite a lot of people have claimed it as their work. I have even had a person say the photo of the Blue Lagoon is theirs. I have the original negative and print which was taken with a Kodak disk 400 camera which is why the resolution is quite bad. The B&W photo of the steam crane was loaned to me by Arthur the then fish warden.
Some dates and information I have collated on Arlesey.
Sadly over the years people have died in the Blue lagoon, some by accident and some just pure stupidity. Since the old pit filled in 1930s the people around the lagoon have used the area for swimming and picnics. The big question Is the Blue Lagoon a dangerous place? I would say no more dangerous than many other places. Going to the cost is that dangerous? Bathers drown in the sea. so please think before you say 'let us remove all danger' This attitude is surely preposterous. (steps off soapbox)
Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now.
One of my many photos of those halcyon days when 100s would swim in the old lagoon. photo taken 1973 with a disk camera.
The old diving board. Photo taken on a cold autumn morning
The plate off the old excavator
1977 Old Steam excavator was recovered from Blue Lagoon
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