The lake is bathed in history
and controversy, in 1870 a bill was passed by Parliament for
the construction of a reservoir on the site of the Blaen Nat
Ddu river, (English translation is Source of the Black river),
which is now the site of Shimano Felindre Big Fish Water.
The reservoir was completed in 1878. It held 160 million
gallons of water when full, and covered 24 acres. The height
of the dam was 90ft. The total cost of building the reservoir
was £43,700 at the time. (Interesting fact: if the dam
was built today it would cost in excess of 100 millon pounds)
The Blaen Nant Ddu Reservoir was considered to be one of the
finest pieces of Victorian engineering of its kind. Unfortunately,
the town council neglected to purchase the mineral rights
below the reservoir and when a mine company started to work
the coal seams below, the Nant Ddu water started to flood
the tunnels.
A costly legal battle was to seal the fate of the Nant Ddu.
The mining company sued the Town council in a very costly
court case, which the mining company won. The Blaen Nant Ddu
was taken out of service in 1919. It resumed service for a
short time during the Second World War for emergency water
supplies only.
Now the Victorian engineering marvel stood idle. In 1977,
the Council decided to take down the dam wall as defects were
starting to concern the engineers. As the water was drained
off and the earth dam removed a part of engineering history
disappeared. You can still see some of the magnificent stone
work that was part of the draw off tunnel today, and at the
top of the stone arch, the date when the Nant Ddu was completed.
Fishing Facts
Up until the dam wall was taken down, the local villagers
fished the reservoir for brown trout. In 1951 Willy Griffiths
of Felindre caught a Brown trout of 5lb 14oz. The fish was
mounted in a glass case and displayed in the local pub, the
Shepherds Arms. Up until a year ago the fish was still there.
The Nant Ddu was also very famous for the red Dragon-fly,
which was prolific in the area. There has always been an abundance
of aquatic life in and around the lake and this is still the
case today. The stream that feeds the lake is still a spawning
run for brown trout
The Lake Today
Felindre Trout fishery has been around for many years; it
was opened in 1989 and quickly established its reputation
as an excellent trout fishery. The fishery grew fast over
the first 5 years; but there was a dark cloud on the horizon.
In 1995 most of the country was hit by one of the worse droughts
in many a year and it seemed that Felindre was taking the
full brunt of it. January and February were very dry months
and without the winter rains, the water levels of the lake
were dropping by 2 inches a day. There was a stock of very
large fish in the stocking ponds, ready for a charity day
competition. March came and went and by the second week of
April the lake had lost 4ft of water. By the Easter weekend
things were looking very serious, no sign of rain, very hot
and fish were starting to die. Felindre wasn’t the only
fishery in trouble; many reports were coming in throughout
the UK of losses of thousands of brown & rainbow trout,
because of the very hot weather, low water levels and no sign
of rain. By the beginning of June the lake was all most empty
and hundreds of fish had perished, many more would have to
be killed and there was nothing that could be done. By the
end of July the lake had completely dried up, not even a trickle
of water was coming from the streams that once fed this lovely
lake.
In August the owner of the lake decided that he was not going
to reopen the lake, this was sad news as the fishery had great
potential
The manager of the lake and fly fishing consultant to Shimano,
Jud Hamblin, was determined not to let the lake die and forged
out a plan with Shimano UK to reopen the lake. Many thousands
of pounds were spent getting the lake ready for opening.
The lake reopened in March 1996. It was decided by Jud Hamblin
to have the lake as a big fish water, as the only big fish
waters were all in England. The lake soon became came known
as the Shimano Felindre Big Fish Water.
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