Hawthorn in Mansfield Park

Image: © Marathon Taken: 5 Apr 2017

The main feature of Mansfield Park is the impressive vista to William Girling Reservoir and, out of sight to the right here, King George's Reservoir. For King George's Reservoir, the excavation and building of the surrounding embankment of the reservoir, nearly five miles in length, was carried out almost entirely by a manual labour force of 1,000 navvies, and the surplus excavated clay was spread over part of Hackney Marsh. In 1913 King George Vth and Queen Mary named the reservoir and pressed the buttons allowing water from the River Lea to start flowing into the storage bowl. Work on the William Girling Reservoir did not start until 1935. During the First World War the site had been used by the Royal Naval Air Service and construction was held up by the Second World War. The surplus of clay was spread over the ground to the south of the new reservoir between the River Lea Diversion and the River Lea Navigation, thus raising the level of the ground and obliterating what remained of the River Lea in Chingford. The reservoir was finally opened in 1951 by the Chairman of the Metropolitan Water Board, Mr William H. Girling. In this photograph the area of hawthorn scrub at the foot of this bank is encroaching on an area of abandoned allotments which were in use until 1970.

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