Happy Days! Watery memories of 50 years ago
My name is Edward and I lived in Hayes Middlesex as a child and we had occasional days out to High Wycombe which I always enjoyed! I’m now living in Cornwall and here are some of my memories of the Dyke and Back Stream.
Over 50 years ago the boating lake (the Dyke) on the Rye was clear water and full of toad tadpoles, sticklebacks and pond snails, Limnea stagnalis. At the waterfall end there was a shallow area that had frog tadpoles in it and as a young child I remember seeing a large common frog in this area.
Sometimes children would feed bread to the ducks and although I never saw them myself, I was told newts could be seen at night eating the leftovers, or possibly the shrimp feeding on the bread.
Caddis larvae were present in the lake at that time, I got a caddis larva out on one occasion in its cocoon of sticks, about 1.5 inches long and I remember seeing a mayfly hatch there one year, it was like a living snow storm!
Unfortunately when the carp were introduced they ate the snails, other invertebrates, lots of plants, and stickleback nests didn’t stand a chance. Everything was crushed by the carps’ pharyngeal teeth. The only good thing is, nowadays they probably eat the invasive American signal crayfish!
Water left the Dyke at the waterfall to form the Back stream where I remember the toads bred and native white clawed crayfish could be found. I also witnessed a shoal of fish there, rudd I think and a single rather nice goldfish, moving up and down the stream. Some other children netted a baby pike out of the stream here, it was about the size of a small stickleback!
Looking forward, the last I heard they were thinking of opening the main river where it flows through High Wycombe town centre, and making it a pedestrian access only area. Now wouldn’t that be nice!
A place of happy childhood memories and when I get the chance I want to visit again.
Edward.