3-5. Garden Lakes
A beautiful necklace of lakes and streams creates a gentle transition from the formal to the informal parts of the Botanic Garden's estate, and provides an important habitat for aquatic wildlife. These water features were created by William Paxton, the landowner who transformed the original 17th century Middleton Estate into a Georgian water park. His ingenious system of lakes, streams, ponds and cascades were formed using dams, bridges and sluices. These not only added beauty to the park but were also designed to provide a state-of-the-art water supply for his new Middleton Hall. After the mansion burnt down in 1931, the lakes were drained and they gradually turned into muddy thickets, so choked with trees that it was hard to believe they had once held clear water. Now, one by one, the seven lakes are being restored - first Pwll yr Ardd (Garden Pool), then the bridge and weir that retain Llyn Uchaf (Upper Lake), and Llyn Canol (Middle Lake). The restored lakes are now abuzz with colourful flying insects and inhabited by families of coots, moorhens, geese and ducks as well as over-wintering migrant birds. Lucky visitors may even catch sight of the blue flash of a kingfisher.
The damp soil conditions around the water's edge are ideal for perennials like primulas, irises, astilibes, gunnera and the skunk cabbage, whilst water lilies flourish on the water's surface.
A beautiful necklace of lakes and streams creates a gentle transition from the formal to the informal parts of the Botanic Garden's estate, and provides an important habitat for aquatic wildlife. These water features were created by William Paxton, the landowner who transformed the original 17th century Middleton Estate into a Georgian water park. His ingenious system of lakes, streams, ponds and cascades were formed using dams, bridges and sluices. These not only added beauty to the park but were also designed to provide a state-of-the-art water supply for his new Middleton Hall. 
After the mansion burnt down in 1931, the lakes were drained and they gradually turned into muddy thickets, so choked with trees that it was hard to believe they had once held clear water. Now, one by one, the seven lakes are being restored - first Pwll yr Ardd (Garden Pool), then the bridge and weir that retain Llyn Uchaf (Upper Lake), and Llyn Canol (Middle Lake).
The restored lakes are now abuzz with colourful flying insects and inhabited by families of coots, moorhens, geese and ducks as well as over-wintering migrant birds. Lucky visitors may even catch sight of the blue flash of a kingfisher.
The damp soil conditions around the water's edge are ideal for perennials like primulas, irises, astilibes, gunnera and the skunk cabbage, whilst water lilies flourish on the water's surface.
