EPW031466 ENGLAND (1930). Sandy Lodge Lane and Common Moor, Moor Park, from the east, 1930

They were still extracting gravel from the eastern-most lake c1960, but by c1964 is was all over. I used to climb over the remains of the dragline excavator and push trucks up and down the contractor's narrow gauge railway between the playing field hedge and the edge of the lake with other children - the health and safety peole would have a fit now, but we are all still here to tell the tale, without any missing extremities. We quickly learned what was likely to be unsafe.

This image was taken only three years before Merchant Taylors' School moved from their London location to a greenfield site on the south side of the river Colne, in readiness for the start of the Summer Term in 1933. Already there are signs of the extractive industry on the flood plain, which eventually led to the formation of Hampermill Lake by 1938. According to one reliable source at the School earlier this month, the second lake was created in 1960. The writer, whilst on a visit to the area, also called in to the Sandy Lodge Golf Clubhouse, which is just discernible on the left of the road. The golf course opened in 1910.