Brief project information:
| The location: | Queen’s Park Lake, Chesterfield |
| The project: | To de-silt the lake as part of a £4m restoration programme and to undertake some lake edge restoration work. |
| Timescale: | November 2004 to January 2005 |
| PDF: |  Download case study - Queen's Park Lake |
“Blue Boar were able to meet our requirements with no problems at all. They used their knowledge and experience to make recommendations and they were a very important part of the jigsaw in what was an enormous project for us.”
John Ramsey, Landscape Development Office, Chesterfield Borough Council.
The location:
Queen’s Park Lake lies within a park that was designed by William Barron and established for Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897. Overlooked by the famous 238ft crooked spire of All Saint’s Church, the park is home to Chesterfield Cricket Club and the focus for many of the town’s leisure activities.
The project:
Over time, as the park has been developed and modernised, much of its original Victorian character has been lost. In 1998, a £4m restoration programme was agreed, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Borough Council.
The project would incorporate around 15 to 20 elements, including the lake, the paths, drainage and the construction of some new facilities, such as children’s play areas. The lake was in urgent need of de-silting and there was some much needed lake edge restoration work to be carried out.
Why Blue Boar?
Ultimately, we won the contract because of our competitive quote and our track record of working on other large, successful projects. We also established an excellent working relationship with Ashmead Price, the landscape architects in charge of various elements of the project.
The challenges:
- When we analysed the silt from the lake, we found that it contained contaminants, probably because Queen’s Park Lake is a boating lake in an urban environment. While the silt was perfectly harmless to use within the park, it was not suitable for re-distribution onto agricultural land.
- Under these circumstances, the dredged silt would usually be sent to landfill, but this isn’t the most efficient method of disposal and it can also be extremely expensive. Working with Ashmead Price, we found another solution; the silt was eventually re-used within the park as part of the landscaping process at the head of the lake.
“Blue Boar worked closely with us when start dates slipped due to unforeseen circumstances – and still brought their part of the work in on time and to budget, despite the shifting timescales.”
Howard Price, Partner, Ashmead Price Landscape Architects.
The outcome:
All in all, 2,100m3 of silt was removed from the five acre lake. We used excavators on floating pontoons so that we could move around the lake to carry out the dredging works. The silt was then taken to the head of the lake to be re-used elsewhere in the park.
Once the de-silting was completed, we restored some of the eroded lake edges. We installed some formal stone bullnose kerbs and stone ‘rip rap’ – random stones placed around the lake in an original Victorian design. In some areas around the lake edge, we installed planted coir rolls to provide a stable, yet environmentally friendly edging structure.
Commercial and Medium sized contracts
In this section
- Bishop’s Palace Wells
- Arrow Valley Lake
- Llandrindod Wells Lake
- Queen’s Park Lake
- Pittville Park
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