Prestwick Lake

In the ice age the flow of the River Pont would have been greatly reduced by loss of headwater following the formation of the North Tyne Valley and hence the Prestwick Valley silted up and a basin formed. With a reducing outfall the marsh area that formed flooded regularly and records show the area in 1809 as a shallow lake which it remained until the mid 19th century when it was drained, a process I hope to describe in a later post. The map above shows the extent of the lake being around some 1,100 acres and up to 5 meters deep. The description of a lake however may be misleading as the extent of the waters clearly varied greatly possibly reducing to just 10 acres in very dry periods. Despite the best efforts of the Engineers this process continues today as in periods of high rainfall the area attempts to revert to its previous state and this week has a seen a moderate example of this flooding. The google earth view below clearly shows the areas prone to flooding as it was taken around July 2008 after floods in the spring which killed off large areas of the grassland. The edge of the lake can also be identified subdivided by the straight lines of the drainage ditches all flowing toward the west and the outfall to the River Pont.

The area will always flood but it is the state of the Pont that determines the severity of the flood on the Carr. The ditches can fill to capacity quite quickly but as long as the Pont is flowing the extent of flooding is relatively small. However, as happened this week when the river was on flood watch, there is no possibility of outfall and the flow on the Carr stops, meaning the water backs up leading to more serious flooding but often 24-48 hours after the rain has stopped. The ditches eventually break their banks and the water spreads extensively over the fields from the various weakspots that occur both naturally or have been created by man. In the early stages this process is hard to detect as the long grass disguises the extent of the flood and more than once I have jumped into an apparently grass field to end up ankle deep in water!

I say created by man as this year has seen attempts by two farmers to drain their land by enlarging the outfall from their land into the ditches. From what I can see this just allows more water to back up onto their fields and the flooding is probably worse than that which would have occured by the formation of natural flashes on waterlogged land. Not to be unfair however, the repeated flooding is a serious problem to farming and the state of the ditches which the Environment Agency controls is always a bone of contention. In my knowledge they were cleaned out yearly but this seems to have ceased in recent times. Whether this contributes is open to debate and the real serious events would almost certainly occur but perhaps recovery would be swifter.

Notable floods have occured in 1903, 1981 and 2000 with the last serious event being August 2008 when Morpeth was devastated and central Ponteland escaped by six inches of flood defence at best. The loss to property and stock was significant with the whole central area being impassable from 100m south of Mayfair cottage to 150m west of the Carr Road junction.

Looking west along the bumpy road

Looking north to Mayfair Cottage

Watching these events has given me a scale to judge the events. Minor- the ditches are full and flashes form, Moderate- the water tops the ditches, floods the fields and approaches the sides of the macadam roads and Serious- when the water breaks over the roads and the land is in-undated. These serious events take over two months to fully subside but it is suprising how quickly the land and wildlife recovers.

Finally, in the year 2000 event when the land was completely flooded man intervened in a somewhat unexpected manor when one of the drift mine seams that run under the Carr collapsed and into this 20m wide hole the flood waters cascaded. Quite spectacular and made the local news thanks to a video from a neighbour. Of course the area was quickly cordoned off and the attraction diminished although the noise of the water flowing into the hole stays with me. With the plug pulled so to speak, the flood subsided but I understand that nobody really knows where the water ended up although local tales of secret tunnels linking these workings to Havannah could mean the water ended up at North Shields!