Watford Lodge

This is Watford Lodge, another popular water open all year. The water is located in New Mills and is a favoured water for our annual Fur and Feather in winter. It's also commonly used for our Evening Summer Matches. The water is located on Bridge Street, at the bottom of Waterford Bridge road, New Mills. From what we can gather, the Lodge was home to two former Mill lodges, which were once used by the local saw mill, which closed in 2008. Watford in itself is a small hamlet of the north eastern edge of New Mills.

Directions:
This water may be approached from Marple, Hayfield or from the A6, via New Mills. Coming off the A6 you need to turn onto the A6015, this road is called Albion Road at this point. Proceed towards the lights of Albion Street, turning left at the lights into Union Street and go to the top of the this street, across the mini roundabout into Market Street and follow the road to Bridge Street about a mile. Watford Lodge is on the left hand side at the junction of Bridge Road with Watford Bridge Road which forks right over the River Sett.

There is a timber stockist on the Watford Bridge road called STP. Coming from Marple, take the B6101 which leaves Marple just after the Canal heading for Strines and Hayfield.The B6101 meets the same junction as coming from the A6 so follow the instructions above



Environmental:
Following reports and supporting evidence from the Environmental Agency on depletion of stock due to predation by both cormorants and goosanders, four protective islands were put in place on Thursday 27th March 2008, two of the islands can be seen in the picture, see the main menu for more details.The lodge will also be re-stocked in April.The committee are confident that the fishing integrity of this site will be restored this year. The picture on the left shows a closer vew of the island. The black tubes are made of a rigid polymer which provide buoyancy. A rectangular cage constructed of netting is suspended from the buoyancy tubes to a depth of about 18";the four sides and the bases are constructed from a square meshed netting.Across the top of this box is a more loosely attached square of similar netting designed to hold rectangles of coir (coconut fibre) in which varieties of water weed have been planted. A further rectangle of netting designed to protect the weed from wildfowl is placed over the island and attached to the buoyany tubes. The island is anchored from its centre to two concrete blocks.

Due to its location and access, this is a very popular site and consequently under a lot of environmental pressure, please ensure that you treat it with respect.

All personal waste material shall be removed along with any other rubbish you may find.

Parking:     Available(at owner's risk) next to the water on Bridge Street and Watford Bridge Road. Please take care not to upset residents and passing traffic, nor to block the entrance to the Lodge themselves.
Open Times:     Dawn to dusk fishing only.
Species:     Roach, Perch, Tench, Bream and Crucian Carp.
Depth:     The lodge has an average depth of 4/6ft but is slightly deeper off the wall next to the road.
Sat Nav:     SK22 4HJ