Yesterday a 900 year old lake in East Cleveland was the scene of a pollution that is estimated to have killed more than 5000 fish.
Priory Cottage Lake in Guisborough was used by the monks of Gisborough Priory. A retired couple, John and Dorothy Bradley, tenants of the Gisborough Estate, who have stocked and tended the lake as a hobby, yesterday spoke of their horror at what had happened.
Mr Bradley said, “Last month, there was a tremendous stench of sewage over the lake. Then there was discolouration of the water.
“I rang local farmers to see if they had been spreading slurry, but nobody was. We checked our drains for any blockages, but they were all clear.
“Then I found a number of dead fish and then there were scores of them floating dead – carp, bream, rudd, pike and tench. It was heartbreaking.
“This has never happened before in all the years we have lived here. This was a stocking pond and we have stocked it for years. It was my hobby.”
The source of the pollution was still unknown an Environment Agency spokesman said, but they were concerned that any of the polluted water had gone over the overflow and into nearby Guisborough Beck and down to Saltburn.
Mr Bradley continued, “”Many of the ducks and swans have just flown away,” he said. “We need the polluted water pumping out of the lake. It should be removed and safely disposed of and the source remedied so we don’t get a repeat.
“It will be up to five years before we can restock it. Many of the fish were more than 30 years old and were irreplaceable.
“It was beautiful and now it is completely dead. A life’s hobby wrecked in 48 hours. It is upsetting as it was such a beautiful, historic place.”
Estate owner Lord Gisborough, said: “It will have to be completely cleaned out and it will be a very big job for the authorities.
An EA spokesman said samples taken indicated the pollution was sewage.
