You can see Hanningfield Reservoir on the weather map. It’s in the middle of Essex, usually just near the forecaster’s left hand as the country sweeps by on the BBC.
It’s the second largest reservoir in the county, taking over 200 days to fill from empty, and its construction required the destruction of a grand stately home and small village. I rather hoped that they might all still be down there under the water somewhere as it’s not very deep and their roofs might poke up above the surface, but sadly they were all knocked down and the spoils carted off before the great natural bowl of the reservoir disappeared beneath the waves.
One of the digging machines was left in there, though, and concreted over to stop its fuel and oils leeching out into the water.
It’s owned by Essex and Suffolk Water, which not only pumps its purified contents to thousands of homes, but also maintains its shoreline as for walkers, anglers and bird watchers, runs a visitor centre, and oversees a cafe perched on the water’s edge. That cafe, rather obviously, is the Cafe on the Water.
We’d have known nothing about it if we’d just thrown away the junk that accompanied the latest water bill, but in with the daunting total was a little booklet of information, and in that booklet was an ad for the cafe.
Tracking it down in the car – it’s too far to cycle – we found the fishing lodge with the cafe and its decking tucked away at the back. It was cheap and cheerful in every sense of the word, so we took seats outside and ordered coffees, teacakes and muffins, and took in the view.
It’s not spectacular – this is Essex we’re talking about, not Northumberland – but it is long and wide, and extremely relaxing. Just in front of the decking there’s a little wooden pier where the fishing boats are tied up, and nearer at hand the ducks pad around on the muddy beach, pausing now and then to clean their feet.
We’ll certainly go back, but next time we’ll probably park some way off, at the visitors’ centre, and walk to the lodge through the woods at the water’s edge. The cafe will make a good stopping-off point before we turn around and retrace our steps.
It’s just a shame it isn’t a little closer to home, or it would make a good bike ride, too.
