What's this in the woods?

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Mon 13 Jul, 2009 9:29 am

There's a track through the woods where Moseley Beck runs down to Woodside. Just before reaching the Quarry coming from the northern end of the wood, the track splits and runs down over the beck coming out at the stone house and terrace (Oxford terrace?) over the concrete crossing over the stream. You are then near the bottom of broadgate Lane.In the wood at that end there's a clearing and about three very large depressions have been dug, are lined and contain mucky old water?There's a nice green metal fence fencing the whole thing off and the path has been upgraded in that area.Anyone know what's been constructed here???

Si · Post by Si » Tue 14 Jul, 2009 12:12 pm

I'm afraid my old maps don't cover that area, Parksider.

Post by **chameleon** » Tue 14 Jul, 2009 2:18 pm

Is there any recent development nearby? I wonder if they are 'balancing ponds' for control the flow of run-off water into the streams/sewers? (Cardiarms may have some knowledge of these??)

Cardiarms · Post by **Cardiarms** » Tue 14 Jul, 2009 3:45 pm

No idea I'm afraid. Does sound like surface water management though. Is there and obvious inlet/outlet?

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Tue 14 Jul, 2009 11:51 pm

chameleon wrote: Is there any recent development nearby? I wonder if they are 'balancing ponds' for control the flow of run-off water into the streams/sewers? (Cardiarms may have some knowledge of these??) There's been some housing development downstream near the old corn mill behind the shell garage.....Balancing ponds - very interesting. I'm off back to see the detail.....

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Tue 14 Jul, 2009 11:52 pm

Cardiarms wrote: No idea I'm afraid. Does sound like surface water management though. Is there and obvious inlet/outlet? Will have a lookie see!Excuse for a walk in the woods eh.

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Wed 15 Jul, 2009 5:07 pm

The three large ponds are at least 30M back from Moseley Beck. Whilst they are about 4M higher at the fence level it may be the water level in them is paralell with the water level in the stream.There is no sign of any pipework in and out, no inflow or outflow at the stream bank, no vales, pumps or anything even between the three lakes/ponds. It could be this is the ground work done by contractor A contractor B to come, but doubt it as a lot of double digging would result.There is a drainage system running down the side of the beck but its an old one with those triangular drain covers "Leeds City Council".Funnily enough some locals have taken the wire snippers to a corner of the fence, pulled it back and got in. There's a blue Li-Lo on the middle pond. Looks like in the hot weather someone fancied a float on the water. What suprises me is whoever did these rather large earthworks and fencing never put a single safety sign on any of it or any notice of who is responsible for it.There is a possible housing development of the massive quarry in Clayton Wood above this area, but I'm hard pressed to see the logic of any connection there....................The whole thing can easily be seen by parking at the bottom of Broadgate Lane, cross over to the signed public footpath by Oxford terace and the ponds are 50 yards on......

Post by **chameleon** » Wed 15 Jul, 2009 6:09 pm

'Funnily enough some locals have taken the wire snippers to a corner of the fence, pulled it back and got in. There's a blue Li-Lo on the middle pond. Looks like in the hot weather someone fancied a float on the water. What suprises me is whoever did these rather large earthworks and fencing never put a single safety sign on any of it or any notice of who is responsible for it.'Vering away slightly - I'm inclined to say, on their own head be it!If the presence of the water is not enough to suggest caution, I would think the dirty great fence might just be a clue that peoople should keep away, somehow I think any signage would simply be treated with the same contempt, but it might help when the irrate parents who failed to supervise their off-spring took their compensation claim came to court

grumpytramp · Post by **grumpytramp** » Wed 15 Jul, 2009 9:32 pm

The Parksider wrote: There is a possible housing development of the massive quarry in Clayton Wood above this area, but I'm hard pressed to see the logic of any connection there.................... fingers perked up reading the thread ...... mmm ...... did someone mention a quarry?Dash ....... even still it may be worth having a scan through this:http://www.woodsidequarryleeds.info/woo ... 1105.pdfIt would not surprise me if that these people are responsible; creating either a new habitat to relocated Great Crested Newts (which sounds unlikely if its lined), SUDS balancing pond ("sustainable urban drainage system" - basically a means of holding surges of water drained from surfaced features such as roads, roofs etc in retention ponds to even out the flow and avoid downstream flooding) but these are generally mostly dry except in heavy rain or most likely settlement ponds to collect silt contaminated water from the development site (allowing the silt to settle out in a series of linked ponds prior to discharge in the beck)???

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Wed 15 Jul, 2009 11:56 pm

grumpytramp wrote: The Parksider wrote: There is a possible housing development of the massive quarry in Clayton Wood above this area, but I'm hard pressed to see the logic of any connection there.................... fingers perked up reading the thread ...... mmm ...... did someone mention a quarry?Dash ....... even still it may be worth having a scan through this:http://www.woodsidequarryleeds.info/woo ... 1105.pdfIt would not surprise me if that these people are responsible; creating either a new habitat to relocated Great Crested Newts (which sounds unlikely if its lined), SUDS balancing pond ("sustainable urban drainage system" - basically a means of holding surges of water drained from surfaced features such as roads, roofs etc in retention ponds to even out the flow and avoid downstream flooding) but these are generally mostly dry except in heavy rain or most likely settlement ponds to collect silt contaminated water from the development site (allowing the silt to settle out in a series of linked ponds prior to discharge in the beck)??? Thanks for having an interesting stab at this GT!!The Quarry is actually a massive big hole. It sits a long way above moseley beck (400 meters) and there is a railway embankment immediately in front of it.The base of the quarry is very uneven so a lot of groundwork in rock would be neccessary. There was in the article a mention of some works being started on "decontamination" a couple of years back, how a sandstone quarry can be "contaminated" I dunno, it wasn't like it was a gas works.I can best imagine that the ponds could take silted water for settling out from the site, if it got in the drains they'd fill with sand.However if the ponds were the start of that work, I can't see any continuation in terms of routing the water 400 yards into the ponds for settling, but then again maybe maybe the intention was to use pumps and hoses.Fascinating.......