October | 2012 | northlincs

Whilst cycling along Scotter Road a spur of the moment thing made me decided to call in and have a look around Riddings Lagoon, I’d not been there for years, in fact it was probably around the mid 1980’s since I’d lasted visited so could remember very little of what the place was like. I only had a 70-150mm lens with me so was limited to what I could take.

Warning Sign

To get to it I trekked through a field off Scotter Road although there are other ways to it as it nestles between two residential caravan parks. The lagoon is fed from water from the nearby area and is used by Severn Trent as an overflow, this lead to a long campaign in the 1990’s to have the area cleaned up, there are still signs around the lagoon warning of deep polluted water.

Crossing point

On reaching the feed dyke there is a cobbled stone crossing point about four feet wide which I had to cross precariously, the feed dyke leads into a large concrete holding tank which then spills out into the lagoon itself.

Waterfowl on the lagoon

Walking around the lagoon at the beginning of October maybe sees the area in its early Autumn glory, the trees, shrubs and bushes are just past their full leaf with many of them starting to display their red and golden colours. The waterfowl make pleasant viewing for some of the residents of the Ashfield Caravan Park, those whose caravans boarder lagoon have taken full advantage and created viewing platforms to take in the scenery. One resident was out with his strimmer cutting the grass around a gate that lead to his home whilst further along the trail was a well maintained garden area.

Maintained garden area

One of the more uncommon things I came across were two bright scarlet Amanita muscaria mushrooms that are said to be deadly poisonous. These were in a not so damp or dark area of the woods that surround the lagoon, there were other fungi in the area but these obviously stood out.