[Rolebama]

I posted in another thread how a local river used to flood. In the winter it would flood an adjacent field and freeze over. It made a brilliant rink. Similarly with a local lake. We would take the tyres and tubes off our pedal cycles and race around on that. It was all great fun. The downside was wading to school in snow deeper than our wellies were high, so we would arrive at school, remove our wellies, and move our desks and chairs to be closer to the radiators to warm up.

[Drivingforfun]

Where are you talking about? I know you’re vaguely in my part of the country and my parents used to go to a frozen lake type thing, it was quite famous, I can’t remember what it was called

[Rolebama]

I am talking about Cowley, Middlesex. Specifically the River Pinn in the field next to Cowley Road, and Little Britain Lake. The Rivers Colne and Frays, as well as the Grand Union and Grand Junction Canals also froze over but narrow boats on the canals would act as ice-breakers on them. This was a regular thing from early 50s to early 60s. I don't know when they actually stopped freezing over as we moved away in 1963.

[olduser]

Originally Posted by Rolebama

I posted in another thread how a local river used to flood. In the winter it would flood an adjacent field and freeze over. It made a brilliant rink. Similarly with a local lake. We would take the tyres and tubes off our pedal cycles and race around on that. It was all great fun. The downside was wading to school in snow deeper than our wellies were high, so we would arrive at school, remove our wellies, and move our desks and chairs to be closer to the radiators to warm up.

There was a local field where I lived that flooded and froze it was great fun, we put small bolts through tyres trying to make spikes, on the scrappy bikes we had - cycle speedway on ice!
While flooded, I was fascinated with float planes (models mostly control line) just to see the takeoff and landing.
Or boats, three floats with minimal structure holding them together, and a model aircraft engine driving an air propeller at the back on a small pylon, if the step/s were right on the floats they got up to high speeds.

One of our children who went back to look a few years ago, reported that field has been built on?

[Seal]

Originally Posted by Rolebama

I posted in another thread how a local river used to flood. In the winter it would flood an adjacent field and freeze over. It made a brilliant rink. Similarly with a local lake. We would take the tyres and tubes off our pedal cycles and race around on that. It was all great fun. The downside was wading to school in snow deeper than our wellies were high, so we would arrive at school, remove our wellies, and move our desks and chairs to be closer to the radiators to warm up.

There’s a field not far away from me that used to flood every winter without fail, think it had something to do with the river flowing past it. It was known on all the maps as the ‘flood plain’ A couple of years ago they built an entire housing estate on it! And yes it still floods, which is nice, very picturesque.

[olduser]

I think housing developments have to provide a surge pond these days of a capacity proportional to the number of houses but as far as I can see, these are not laws just guidance.

[Nick]

I often recall a street near where my mum and I used to live with my grandparents as a child where, one really bad winter (I forget the year, but it was so think it came up the front door a way.), we would head to the street on a hill at the end of our road and, sitting on a tea tray, slide all the way down to the bottom, probably about quarter of a mile - to half a mile down this hill. Not as many cars in the way, simple things. Good fun!