Friends of Fineshade
Images of Fineshade Wood
Water and mud
Fineshade Wood lies on a plateau of heavy clay. When it rains here the water stays put. When vehicles, bikes, or lots of people go on it the water becomes mud.
These are not pretty pictures!
We are publishing them as a warning to potential developers of what conditions can get like underfoot in Fineshade. It's one thing to draw plans in an office in, for example, Moira or Sherwood. It's quite another thing to experience conditions out in the wood itself.
Hover over the images or, better, click on any image to enlarge it and read details.
This is the track through North Spinney
Water pours over the Forest Road at Dumb Bob Spinney
There's just nowhere for the water to go
A flash flood on already saturated clay. Holiday cabin here?
Put down hard standing but you'll still have standing water
This is the only access to Fineshade Top Lodge... and it floods
The FC know about the mud problems. Why don't they tell Forest Holidays?
Water collects quickly and does not flow away - it's flat ground
You might think this is a river - but it's not flowing anywhere
This is the effect of working when the ground's wet
This is an unofficial cycle track, except when it rains
Would a Forest Holidays play area be any better than this
Once a dip is created it will always fill with water very quickly
If any 4x4 persists in going off the hard track this is what happens.
This is the track where Forest Holidays proposed to bring their construction traffic.
Compacted clay gets impervious
This pond was overlooked by FH's surveyors and lies alongside their construction access route
This is simply surface water - not a pond at all in the summer
It's no wonder that most Fineshade ponds hold water right through the year, given the impervious nature of the clay
Would you like to pay over £1000 to stay here?
Any frequently used area soon becomes a quagmire
There will have to be lots of hard tracks to avoid this sort of thing.
Even little-used paths in Fineshade soon look like this
Because the land is flat ditches just collect water that cannot flow away
A feature of the ground here is that springs suddenly emerge. This one is new in 2016
Walk off the tracks in Fineshade and the water will go over your ankles unless you're very careful.
Drainage ditch which has ceased to flow right beside FH's proposed "Retreat"
Center Parcs decided against building here in the 1980s because of the clay. You can see why.
The sound of rippling water can be very attractive. The trouble is you rarely hear it in FIneshade - water doesn't flow!