Funding for restoring the Model Boating Pond is in place and preparatory works have started.
Great News! Observant members of our park community may have noticed blue and red markings on the ground in Broomfield Park in recent weeks. Thanks to an initiative between the Friends of Broomfield Park and Enfield Council, supported by Cllr Doug Taylor and Cll. Chris James, and funding from the council, preparatory works are taking place for the long overdue restoration of the model boating pond.
The model boating pond has been a much-loved feature of Broomfield Park since it was built in 1903. From the Coronation Gates on Aldermans Hill, it creates a welcoming entrance leading down to the Baroque Lakes, Walled Gardens, and the ruins of Broomfield House. The pond draws people in to walk around and sit by or participate in boating activities.
The park is recognised to have a rare asset of value in the natural aquifer, borehole, pump, and boating pond. The boating pond can be seen as one of the fundamental characteristics of the park’s heritage and assumes additional significance in relation to Enfield Council’s current initiative, supported by Historic England, to ‘kick-start the rejuvenation of Broomfield Park by dismantling the derelict shell of Broomfield House, and reconnecting the park and House through memorialisation, interpretation and landscaping’.
The model boating pond is in a poor state and represents a blight on an otherwise improving and very popular centre of the park. When filled with rainwater and surface water runoff, rather than fresh water from the natural aquifer, the pond draws in large amounts of debris, sediment and pollutants and quickly becomes overgrown with algae which presents a toxic threat. The pond has had no fresh water in it for many years following the failure of the existing 30-year-old borehole pump.
With the surrounding parkland, the circle of mature weeping willows, the Palmers Greenery Community Café and the newly restored netball and tennis courts, the pond has the potential to be a major centre of attraction and amenity for a local park community and for those who can easily access it from across the borough. Until recent times it has had an active and popular model boating club for many years.
The Friends of Broomfield Park have been working over several years with Enfield Council on a project is to restore the pond and its surrounds. This will involve re-establishing its essential fresh water supply from the existing borehole and ensuring free drainage with outflow controls to the lakes below along with restoring and waterproofing the concrete base and walls. We hope to be able to provide a new surrounding pathway, benches and other amenities.
This article was first published on the Friends of Broomfield Park website on 16th March 2023.