BEFORE
Once upon a time…..165 million years ago, in the Jurassic period…. this area was covered by a shallow tropical sea (like the Bahamas). The place would have been awash with marine animals such as huge plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, ammonites and starfish.
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A few Ice Ages followed, when everything froze, and huge glaciers were formed. When eventually the earth warmed up again, the glaciers melted, and fast flowing rivers carried huge amounts of rocks and stones to this area, which then formed the layers of gravel under our feet.
If you had been here 50,000 years ago, you would have seen the great woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, deer and bison roaming the river plains looking for food.
Fossils
When the mineral companies dig up the gravel, they find lots of fossils that would otherwise remain buried forever. Bits of mammoth bones, tusks, and teeth are quite common, and a couple of years ago a very rare mammoth skull was found near the village. It is on display in the Gateway Information Centre, near South Cerney.
However, a large number of the fossils just get crushed and turned into small stones, which are then used to make roads and pavements. It is funny to think that when you go shopping in Swindon you are walking on crushed up mammoth bones!
How digging for gravel began
Fast forward to the beginning of the 20th century, and the area was a patchwork of fields, woods and streams, where farming was the main activity. When the locals needed some stone for building, they just dug a hole in their back garden and took out the gravel!
By the 1960s, gravel extraction was big business, and some of the lakes around the village were created at this time, including Keynes Park where the beach is!
Soon this small scale activity turned into a large industry, as lots of new houses and roads were needed in the area after the second world war. Now there are lots of mineral companies digging up the gravel in the Cotswold Water Park, and it will take another 50 years before all the gravel is extracted.
Some facts about the Cotswold Water Park......
40 square miles of countryside
147 lakes
20,000 residents
40 different lake owners
74 fishing lakes
10 lakes with SSSI status
150km of pathways, bridleways and cycleways
6000 years of habitation
A spine bone from a Jurassic ichthyosaur
50,000 year old woolly mammoth tooth
Woolly mammoth skull found near Ashton Keynes
