Top 6 Lakes around East Cowes

Lovely bridge over the Causeway Lake estuary. Enjoy views of the lake on one side and mouth of the river on the other, before setting off for more exploring of this beautiful landscape on the Isle of Wight.

Now a fishing lake, Mopley Pond was formed some time in the past by damming the valley where two streams met to form a mill pond for the Mopley watermill on the Bourne. The earlies known reference to a mill here is 1626, but the mill referred to under Woodington in 1555 is almost certainly Mopley. The mill appears on the Fawley tithe map of 1838, but it has been removed by the OS Survey undertaken in 1868. The PLUTO pipeline ran from the holding tanks on Badminston Common to a pump house at Mopley Pond, but was removed after the war. The pump-house was constructed of corrugated iron with a gabled tin roof and double doors in the end, making it look like a domestic garage. All that is left today is the concrete base, and even this is overgrown with vegetation. From Mopley to Stone Point on the Lepe foreshore, the PLUTO pipeline then ran underwater across the Solent to Thorness Bay on the Isle of Wight and thence across the Island to Shankling Chine, where it crossed the Channel to the Cherbourg Peninsular.

There were many wartime installations in the Fawley area, including the storage tanks used for the PLUTO project, a Second World War Pipe Line Under the Ocean. These were located at the end of Badminston Lane in an area generally known as the Common. It was largely open heathland, much like the New Forest, covered with heather and gorse. The tanks measured about 180 metres by 100 metres and stood about three or four metres high. They were covered over with soil and sand and then grassed over to conceal their position and purpose. The removal of the sand and gravel left a huge scar on the landscape about a metre deep and required to be camouflaged. This was achieved by lopping off the top 2 metres of pine trees, positioning them in the manner of plantation trees and securing them in position with wooden pegs and galvanised iron wire. They soon became a local feature as a forest of small dead tree tops! Badminston Common was used for common grazing land in the 18th century. Gravel has been extracted from this area for years. The now flooded Badminston gravel pit is a haven for all sorts of wildlife.

Alan Hersey Nature Reserve, located on a flood-plain between Springvale and Seaview, is a great place for birdwatching. Keep an eye out for species including snipe, shoveler, mute swan, goldfinch, kingfisher, sparrowhawk, plus more. The reserve is named after Alan Hersey, a former local councillor in Seaview.

Is a Gift to Nature site next to Naturezones. The pond has been cleared and maintained to make it the perfect environment for dragonflies and damselflies. There is a bench next to the pond and it is a peaceful place for a picnic.