Ryton Pools Country Park
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Ryton Pools Country Park is a country park one mile south west of the village of Ryton on Dunsmore in Warwickshire, England. The park has an area of about 100 acres and contains four pools, the largest of which is 10 acres. Ryton Woods, situated next to the country park is also open to the public and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Professional park rangers are employed to look after the varied flora and fauna of the park. The park was a set of fields, until 1965 when the land was purchased and used as a landfill site for the nearby towns of Leamington Spa, Rugby and Coventry. Waste was dumped there for 27 years until 1992 when work started on developing part of the site into a country park, including the flooding of the pits. The park officially opened in 1996 with over 2,500 trees and shrubs being planted. In the late 1990s the remainder of the landfill site was filled in and new pools were created as well as several buildings to act as information centres. These buildings were superceeded by better and more permanent ones in 2002.
The grounds including two car parks has official opening times (which vary according to the seasons); however, visitors can enter the park on-foot outside these hours if they wish. Facilities at the park include a visitor centre/cafe and gift shop, two children's play areas for different ages of children, a bird hide, a 610 metre long ride on a miniature railway (open Easter until end of September with charge of 80p), miles of pathed and unpathed walks, and fishing facilities. The park also organises events such as children's parties, birds of prey spotting, creepy crawly club, nest box building, and prams in the park (walking for mothers with babies).
There is also a methane powered electricity generator which takes the methane from the rubbish once dumped there. In one year it produces enough electricity to run 18 secondary schools or roughly 2,000 houses which is released into the National Grid UK. The park is ran jointly by the councils of Warwickshire and Rugby Borough as it lies within both administrative areas.
