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Dickey Lake

What is known today as Dickey Lake is also known as Kiln Lake. The word 'lake' was used locally to refer to a stream, e.g. the Mackerelle Lake which flows down The Laques. The name 'Kiln lake' presumably links to the bread kiln at the back of Great House, which is now derelict. The river is now known as The Corran.

The Corporation map of 1834 shows the lane led to a bridge (above) over the river into the grounds of 'Curran Brook Houses', where The Cors now sits. It seems that Curran Brook was a grand house, with stables behind, and perhaps subdivided by 1834 into several residences. In the 1834 image below, is the large house on the bottom left Curran Brook House?

In the 1841 census part of Curran Brook was occupied by Elizabeth Hughes, aged 20, with two young children, plus two other ladies of independent means, one with two daughters, all assisted by three resident servants. In 1837 permission was given to a Colonel Samuel Hughes to remove the bridge across the river. Presumably he was Elizabeth's husband, away on service at the time of the census, which explains why the bridge is no longer there, tho' there is a small footbridge. Presumably this bridge was built so that people who lived at the Cors could easily access the north side of town and St Martin's Church.

The buildings in Dickey Lake on the 1834 Corporation map above were numbered as 97, 98, 99, 101 and 102 and the space numbered 100 in 1842 was described as 'Stables and Waste', belonging to the Corporation and rented out to local residents.

In 1843 the Corporation leased three stables and part of the rick yard to John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins, who owned Great House. A rick yard is where hay or fodder were stacked for the horses owned by the residents of King Street. Access to the river was important and there was a 'right of way' of three feet for horses to drink.

By 1841 it was becoming known as Dickey Lake or Duck Lake, and that name appears in the 1909 Corporation records.

So why Dickey Lake? Nobody really knows, but one theory is that a Richard Brace lived there in 1871, perhaps known familiarly as 'Dicky'? A 'Dickey' is also a driver's seat on a carriage, so maybe it's related to the stables. As motor transport increased the area became converted into the cottages we see today.

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