Talk:Southport Botanic Gardens

Water flow from Meols Hall

I remember in the 90s, there used to be a stream coming in from the grounds of Meols hall near the boathouse. Serpentine lake trickled out on the Balmoral Drive side, under the arched brick bridge near the car park. It then went under The Stray (probably why it exists), then I think it changed direction near the old police station (there was a noisy grid there with running water that we used to sit on), and into Crossens down a ditch between Homedale Ave and Preston New Road - which was good for frogspawn. Then under The Rec on The Causeway side, then Rufford Road and into The Vicar's Ditch (which was also good for frogspawn) and exited into The Three Pools waterway.

The lake became stagnant when the water flow stopped, which, IIRC they unsuccessfully tried to fix with that fountain next to Churchtown Primary School's gate. I strongly suspect it caused a death in 2018 [1], and may have also been the cause of the 2016 flooding on North Road [2].

The Vicar's Ditch is now dry at the Rufford Road end, there was no frogspawn when I took my daughter there 5 years ago.

If anyone has any more info about this then we should probably document it for the sake of history, or in case it turns out to be an undocumented/suppressed local scandal. Maybe get someone with waterways planning insight to weigh in on the reasons. Bitplane (talk) 00:35, 27 August 2024 (UTC)