Coate Water Country Park

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Coate Water (grid reference SU188820) is a country park in the south-east of Swindon, near Junction 15 of the M4. It takes its name from the main feature, a reservoir originally built to provide water for the Wilts and Berks Canal.

Coate is the site of a 70-acre lake, built in 1822 and formed by diverting the River Cole. It's primary purpose was to provide water for the Canals and it remained outside the borough until expansion in 1928.^[1] In 1914, with the canal abandoned, Coate became a Pleasure Park. Changing rooms and a wooden diving board were added, the board since replaced with today's 33ft concrete one in 1935. Now named officially named Coate Water Country Park, it is both a leisure facility and a nature reserve. Coate Farm, with the Richard Jefferies museum, is contained within it's environs.

Primarily for its breeding bird populations, an area of 51.1 hectares of the lake and its margins has been notified as a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest, notification originally taking place in 1971.^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ Mark Child [2002]. Swindon : An Illustrated History. United Kingdom: Breedon Books Publishing. ISBN 1-85983-322-5.
2. ^ SSSI citation sheet at English Nature's website

[edit] External links

• English Nature (SSSI information)
• SSSI boundary at English Nature's "Nature on the Map" website
• Coate Water — Swindon Council's guide to the country park.
• Richard Jefferies Museum — Dedicated to the memory of one of England's most individual writers on nature and the countryside, this small museum is a short walk from Coate Water.