Copperhouse Pool- Silted up?

Copperhouse Pool is a familiar feature of Hayle, passed or glanced at most days by many of us and an attractive part of the town, scenic with the tide in, and a bonus for local and visiting bird watchers when the tide is out.

Not a natural pool, it was artificially created when the harbour was a busy and developing port by building out from the northern, Towans side and the creation of a sluice gate to impound tidal water for sluicing the waterways and a bridge for improved access.

Part of Hayle’s tidal estuary system before the civil engineering and reshaping of the waterways as Hayle developed, the estuaries were open. There was no enclosure of Copperhouse Pool, no Black Road and Black Bridge to create Wilson's Pool, the Recreation Ground was open estuary, and as the tide surged up the open and unrestricted east lobe of the estuary, the only restriction may have been an early bridge at Loggans.

The Marsh Lane area up to Angarrack most likely really was marsh, possibly even tidal estuary still, and it is probable that with little restriction tides reached far higher than today.

Over the years, land around Loggans was built up and reclaimed, rivers tamed and rerouted,  and the east estuary was crossed by tracks and bridges that became  Lethlean Lane and Black Road, and the Swing bridge and road to North Quay.

Compared with the full surge of tidal water in pre-industrial days, each development restricted the flow of seawater, and with mine waste and agricultural silt being washed down the Angarrack River and other streams, the estuary silted up above each new obstruction. 

Marsh lane area still floods, but mainly from heavy rain, and is mostly moist grazing meadows.

The next bit of the estuary having silted up was made into the Recreation Ground (opened by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh 60 years ago in 1952) and the area restricted by Black road between Copperhouse and the bottom of Phillack Hill, known as Wilson's pool became salt marsh and reed beds, but was regularly inundated by fresh sea water at the highest tides for years.

The old wooden sluice gates under the Swing bridge could open fully allowing a good inflow of water, and a smaller sluice, buried beneath the Swimming Pool and road now, also allowed in a substantial flow of water which at the highest tides lapped almost at the very lip of the old docks and pool walls with a depth of water that allowed sailing yachts to the extent that there were regattas!

The first restriction though was the stopping of the sluice under the Swimming Pool some 30-40 years ago. With that closed off it was simply not possible at the high point of each tide for the same volume of water to come through the remaining sluice gates before the outside levels dropped again.

This was compounded when regular active sluicing finally ended, and to retain an element of sluicing effect,  one of the pair of wooden sluice gates  was braced shut at all times by a heavy timber prop, effectively halving the inward flow, and from that time the highest tides were noticeably lower, yet still enough to occasionally flood Wilson's Pool.

These wooden sluice gates were then replaced by a mechanically operated vertically rising steel flood gate as part of a flood prevention scheme, which restored the ability of tides to use the full size of the channel under the swing bridge.

Sadly for some time now, the control of the flood prevention gate has come under the Environment Agency, who “to be on the safe side”, keep the gate almost permanently down with only about a meter gap to allow water in.

This means that the water level is always far lower than it used to be, boats trying to row find the bottom scraping or oars, yachts with keels just can’t be used and during one swimming event contestants complained their hands were touching bottom.

This has given rise to the understandable idea that “Copperhouse Pool has silted up” but, while there must have been some silting, the biggest negative effect in recent years has been the policy of the Environment Agency.

Attempts by local groups  to get more water allowed into the pool regularly, have been rebuffed by the Environment Agency, on ECONOMIC grounds as they claim there is a cost element in sending an operator to Hayle to vary the height of the gate.

You MIGHT be aware that in other parts of the UK, the EA have spent large sums of money reverting farmland back to Salt Marsh, yet in Hayle they allow Wilson's Pool to dry out and change character.

Wilson's Pool and Copperhouse Pool are part of the Hayle Site of Special Scientific Interest which is managed by English Nature, most of Copperhouse Pool is owned by the RSPB, the Environment Agency have responsibilities, and the Harbour Company have legal rights and responsibilities. Only Hayle Town Council as the representative body of Hayle people has no rights.

Would YOU like to see higher water in Copperhouse Pool?