The work begins...

Broken Brae Fishing Lakes had been created out of a gravel quarry and whilst the site had great potential it was obvious that it would take a lot of work to transform what was a rather overgrown and neglected site into somewhere people might want to stay for their holidays.
There were three major problems to overcome, firstly the site was overgrown with vegetation, secondly there were mounds of earth which was basically spoil from the gravel quarrying operation in places where it shouldn’t have been and thirdly we needed to build up the flood defences to protect the site from the potential risk from the river.
The vegetation issue was the first issue to solve, with the help of some experts in the form of Sean Perkiss and Dave Pickford. The task of clearing out 20 years of random growth began, we had literally hundreds of trees and masses of assorted vegetation to clear, this eventually took three months of hard work.


Les Helme, a local groundwork’s contractor, was given the job of main contractor on the site. He initially came in with a couple of 360 diggers and a fleet of tractors and trailers to literally move mountains. We needed somewhere to put something like 22000 cubic meters of earth, not an insubstantial amount! Les calmly suggested we part the topsoil on the 9 acre field we had conveniently acquired with the site, spread the spoil and then repatriate the topsoil, this would raise the height of the field by 500mm. No problems then!

The issue of the flood defences was a major headache. Whilst we understood what needed doing to protect the site against the 100 year flood level, plus global warming it was no small task. There was a bund running along the river bank for 2/3 of a mile which had been put in as local protection, however the extensive survey we had done suggested the height need to be raised in some areas and repairs needed to done where the river had eroded it over the years.
The Environment Agency were adopting a belt and braces approach to the repairs, which if you see the River Swale in flood is understandable. The Swale is the fastest flowing river in England and rises and falls very quickly. We had to clear most of the vegetation from the river banks leaving just the mature trees in place. Hundreds of tons of hardcore was placed along the top and river side of the bank to build it up where necessary, then geotech matting was sandwiched between layers of topsoil, and the whole lot seeded with grass which would root into the matting to offer protection from water erosion. The floods in August 2008, one of the highest levels on record, proved the integrity of the defences, thank goodness.


We started this work in March 2008 and by the end of May we were ready to start building lodges.

Hello everybody. . .my name is Rosie Mennem, interior designer for Brompton Lakes and I’m delighted to have been asked to contribute to the ‘Brompton Lowdown’ Blog!

I became involved in the Brompton Lakes project after meeting with Roy Stephenson through friends during which time we often chatted about the interior design and decorative painting I’d been involved with throughout my career.

After leaving school I worked with my mother on antique fairs in London, putting my fine art qualifications to good use by decorating pieces of furniture by hand. This led me to be the first person to supply painted furniture to the General Trading Company in Sloane Square.

My commissions since then have been wonderfully varied; I restored a fresco in the church of the hill top village of Mougin in the South of France and worked extensively in the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague. I’ve also hand painted shoes for Jimmy Choo during which time I worked on shoes for Nicole Kidman and was invited along to the Oscars!.

When Roy told me about his ambitious plans for Brompton Lakes, It all sounded very exciting and I was delighted when he asked me to get involved.

My brief was quite clear - to create living spaces of distinction, the like of which would be above the standard normally found in self-catering accommodation before. For me the answer was simple – I wanted to create luxurious rooms that were visually inspirational whilst still being relaxing and comfortable. A fusion of colours, textures and patterns that combined to create a look that was unique to Brompton Lakes.

The lodges contain many bespoke, hand painted pieces and original wall hangings, we’ve used wall coverings from some of the UK’s leading designers including Neisha Crosland, Clarissa Hulse, Cole & Cole and Jocelyn Warner and everything has been brought together with the help of a great team of decorators.

The project hasn’t been without its challenges, not least having to work around the clock to get the two show models finished and ‘dressed’ ready to be photographed for the holiday lettings market. In the end though, everyone involved has pulled together – one or two of the other contributors may even join me in posting an entry on this blog is they’re feeling brave and I hope when you visit you’ll agree that the end result was well worth all the hard work!