page_title: Gunville
section_title: Gunville Lake
hierarchical_section_title: Gunville / Gunville Lake
caption_attribution_description: English: A picture of Gunville fishing lake on the Isle of Wight.
context_page_description: Gunville is a small settlement on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. It largely comprises housing, although there are also a small number of shops, a couple of charity shops, some retail warehouses, a snooker hall, Methodist Church and a fishing lake. The settlement seems to date from some time after 1800, although the vast majority of the buildings currently standing in Gunville date from after 1900.
  The village lies south of Forest Road, joining to the larger settlement of Carisbrooke. It is approximately 1.25 miles west of Newport and chiefly lies along a one mile stretch, either side of Gunville Road. It encompasses Alvington Manor View, The Bramleys, Gunville Crescent, Spring Walk, Pineview Drive, Taylor Road, Gunville West, Chapel Close, Broadwood Lane, Park Close, Forest Hills, Arthur Moody Drive, Ash Lane, Ash Close and The Hollows.
  In the past, the centre of the Island was made up of a number of small and distinct villages, such as Newport, Carisbrooke, Gunville, Clatterford, Shide, New Village, Barton's Village, Bellecroft, Pan, Hunny-Hill and Fairlee.
context_section_description: The privately owned Gunville Lake is on the west side of Gunville Road and is the oldest fishery owned by the Isle of Wight Freshwater Angling Association (IWFAA). This freshwater section of the Isle of Wight Angling Society was formed in 1956, although they were unable to take full control of the lake's lease until 1969. During all of this time, there was quite a fight to preserve the pond from the constant tipping of rubbish and the spoil from nearby excavations.
  Gunville Lake covers an area of 4.5 acres, with thirty swims fishable and has been described as one of the finest freshwater fishing spots in the south of England. In 2001, there was a major exercise to clear the lake of unwanted vegetation and to improve land drainage. Gunville Lake is a mixed fishery, popular with carp specialists, with some fish reaching almost 30lb in weight. The lake contains carp, bream, tench, rudd, common roach, perch, pike and eel.
  The lake formed part of the old brickworks (now demolished), which made bricks for the nearby Albany Barracks. In around 1933, part of the brickworks were abandoned when workmen struck an underground stream, causing it to fill with water to a depth of thirty feet in places. It is rumoured that the engine that was used to pull clay to the foundry still lies at the bottom of the lake. In the years leading up to around 1946, the size and depth of the lake reduced drastically, as the site was being used as a rubbish tip by the Newport Corporation (local council). Following the end of the Second World War, a lot of the barbed wire used, also ended up being dumped there. The lake might have been lost forever with the continual tipping, but the council relinquished their tipping rights in 1968. By that time, the lake had shrunk to only around 50 yards across and to only around three feet deep in places. The Council said that although they sympathised with the local anglers, they were giving up their tipping rights with reluctance, as they were unable to find an alternative site.
  In its earlier days, the lake used to be referred to as a pond, but after the IWFAA took over the site in 1969 and cleared it to a depth exceeding five feet, it could officially then be classified as a lake. The success in transforming the lake from the old rubbish tip into a beautiful fishery was attributed to the "single-minded zeal of the Association Secretary, Bill Kingswell".
  Tragedy struck the lake in 1957, when a 14-year-old schoolboy drowned whilst swimming with a friend. After disappearing in the water, he was later found by a combined police and Fire Brigade search in 18 feet of water, about 9 feet from the bank.
  There used to be another fishing pond in Gunville. Although smaller than Gunville Lake, Coker's Pond nevertheless afforded some of the best carp fishing on the island and even attracted fishermen from the mainland to fish there. However, like Gunville Lake, it too suffered from the tipping of rubbish and earth over the years, especially in 1957, when excavations for the new nearby Carisbrooke College was needlessly dumped in the pond. Coker's Pond now no longer exists, after being filled in when a new housing estate was built over the site in 1994. The pond was under the land where Linnet Close and The Finches now lie.
caption: Gunville Lake
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