Thursday, 20 September 2012

Moors Valley Country Park and Moors Lake



Yesterday Mom and I visited Moors Valley Country Park and Walked around Moors Lake, it is a much more commercial park that the others we visit but because of its large size its easy to escape the crowd especially at this time of year after the tourists have gone home, we purchased a "quiet times" permit which means we can visit any time during the week except when the kids are off school and we would not visit then anyway.

The Moors Valley Country Park is a 1000 acre Park and woodland with miles of trails and opportunities to see wildlife, it was formerly known as Kings Farm.

The 82 acre Kings Farm was purchased by East Dorset District Council in 1984. Work began to develop a 9-hole pay and play golf course, the narrow-gauge steam railway, play area, lake and Visitor Centre. This first phase of Moors Valley was officially opened in 1988.

The park was much more popular than had originally been envisaged and was bursting at the seams with the half a million visitors by 1990. An additional 170 acres were purchased to allow for expansion of the golf course and a second lake to be built, the Visitor Centre was extended to make way for a Country Shop and new toilets. At the same time the Tree Top Trail and Play Trail were constructed in the forest. Over the following ten years the parks popularity grew still further with approximately 750,000 visitors each year, making it one of the most popular parks in the south of England.

The Forestry Commission and East Dorset District Council are continually looking for ways to improve Moors Valley to ensure it stays as one of the best countryside recreation facilities in the country. In recent years a new toddlers play area, cycle hire centre, high ropes course and orienteering course have been added and there is a rolling programme to improve and replace structures on the play trail.

The Moors Lake was dug in 1985, primarily to help control flooding along the lower reaches of the Moors River south of the Country Park. The northern end of the lake was de-silted in the autumn of 2003. It is fed by the Moors River, has a maximum depth of 2 metres, a natural clay bottom and covers an area of 9 acres.

Here is a slide show of some of the many shots I took yesterday I hope you enjoy them, have a great day;)




10 comments:

  1. A really beautiful park. Your shots are fabulous, the light, the colours, the reflections....all perfect.

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  2. Thanks Mitch I have been experimenting with light and shadow for a couple of weeks its been interesting

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  3. Could you explain to me how to leave comments on blog sites for people on my friends list whose blogs show up on my page yet whose sites won't let me reply becuse we aren't an the same "team?" How does one go about finding a list of "teams" and/or joining them?



    Second question, I imported all my MP stuff, blogger says they are here, but won't let me accdss them. How do I get at them?

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    1. I am sorry Tim I did not impost anything to Blogger and therefore I have no idea how it works. I have no idea why you cant access you posts.

      I know that there is a problem accessing other peoples posts that were imported from Multiply it seems to be something to do with their Multiply settings and Blogger does not recognize people on blogger as friends for those posts, sorry I cant tell you more Tim, thanks for your visit

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  4. Replies
    1. Thank you Carealot have a Great day;) Thanks for your visit

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  5. WOW! Great photos and some nice fall colors starting to sneak in! Also nice history of the area! Makes me wanna research and find areas like this in my area.

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    1. Hi Jacob yes I have been finding new places to explore in the area I was amazed how many there are. Thanks for your visit and comments;)

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  6. Looks like the perfect day, your swan buddy was very cooperative.

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    1. Good Morning Lyn he was indeed LOL;) Thanks for your visit;)

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