Maiden Erlegh Lakes

Geography and site

Areas of ancient and secondary woods, grassland, a sizable lake, a brook, an old woodland pond, and the adjacent wetland environment make up the nature reserve.

The reserve is home to a wide variety of animals, including more than 20 tree species, more than 50 bird species, more than 50 fungal species, and more than 100 species of moths and butterflies.

The location has a 2.4-hectare lake that is up to two meters deep.[5] Birds use the two islands in the lake as nesting sites.

The reserve features woodlands that contain a small pond which is the last remaining remnant of a second lake that used to occupy much of this copse area.^[7] On the south side of the lake is more woodland, plus a wildflower meadow and butterfly garden.

On the island within the lake known as Swan Island a statue made out of a tree that had fallen in 2007 was revealed to the public in 2009.

About 18 indicator species linked to ancient woodlands may be found in the reserve’s Oak Wood region, which dates at least to the 16th century.[11]It is thought that the lake region, which was formerly a damp woods, was dammed sometime between the Middle Ages and the 18th century in order to provide ice, fishponds, and a landscape feature.

Slaveholder and MP William Mathew Burt purchased Maiden Erlegh in the late 1700s, and he hired Capability Brown to help with landscape design.

The woodlands and lake in Maiden Erlegh Park are depicted as having about the same size and shape as they are today in both the 1820 enclosure maps and the 1844 tithe map.

Solomon Joel acquired the lake and its environs in 1903, and it is thought that he had the bigger of the lake’s two islands constructed.

Coopers Estates consented to sell Maiden Erlegh Lake and the surrounding woodland to Earley Parish Council in 1965 for £8,500 in exchange for permission to construct on another greenfield site in response to the concerns of the local community.

The lake itself, along with Oakwood, Old Pond Copse, and a tiny portion of Moor Copse, made up the acreage that was sold in 1965. Old Lane Wood was purchased for £1 from Wokingham Borough Council in 1991.

Earley Town Council subsequently designated the land as a local nature reserve in 1996.

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