Where The Water Remembers What We Forget

A drive back to Branston Water Park opens a door into childhood swims, family secrets, near misses, and the quiet magic of a lake that still shimmers under a full moon. We trace how a rough gravel pit became a place of healing, intuition, and generational return.

• early memories of the gravel pits and the yacht club
• teenage summers, body image, and simple shared food
• wildlife notes across seasons and changing paths
• psychic impressions, moonlit walks, and sensed energies
• a near-drowning at the lagoons and family secrecy
• returning as parent and grandparent to walk and heal
• trees as companions and intuitive practice
• invitation to visit Branston Water Park and reflect

Take a picture of you standing by the water and send it to me

Transcript

From Gravel Pits To Water Park

Youthful Summers And Self-Image

Wildlife, Seasons, And Changing Place

Energies, Full Moons, And Psychic Sensing

Generations Walking The Same Path

Swimming The Lagoons And A Near Miss

Don’t Tell Your Mother

Foraging Memories And Simple Food

Healing Walks And Lasting Bond

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Hey, hey, hey, welcome to Zoetic Chat, Unleas Your Life's Journey. I was wondering what to um what to talk about on this podcast, and I was just driving along the um a dual carriageway and I'm going to um see my mother, and it's the town that she lives in is the town that I was born in. And as I was driving along, I thought, oh, I started getting kind of flashbacks to when I was younger, and there's a place here called um well Branston Water Park, but years ago, you know, it was called the gravel pits, and it was literally a pit of gravel, and they used to pull the gravel out, and one of these conveyor belts. I don't even know if I still use them now. It was a conveyor belt that all the gravel went on to and then it went off to um be used for whatever it was used for. I still don't know. I mean, I guess gravel's used in many different ways, isn't it? So this gravel pit used to fill with water, so it attracted people. Um there was all these signs to say no swimming, no this, no that, but a little a particular corner of it um was like a beach. There was sand, tiny bit of gravel, but we used to um all congregate there in the school holidays. Um and there was a yacht club, and they used to yaunch yaunch, launch the yachts onto the uh water, and you know, have little yacht races and all sorts of things. I can't ever remember any other boats being on there, but I can remember the yacht club, and I can remember that we used to I used to be in a bikini. I remember this lime green bikini that I had. Um and I used to think I was fat. Clearly I wasn't, so I wouldn't have worn a bikini uh in those days. Um I wouldn't have done. Uh it wouldn't have bothered me now, uh, because things are different and you feel different about yourself. It's an internal thing, isn't it? So this um water park that it's called now, well let's call it the gravel pits, so it comes, it you have to drive off of the A38, and then you go past a big container um park, really, and then you come to the actual pond, water park, lake, whatever you want to call it, it's full of wildlife, absolutely full, and you do get a lot of twitchers and other people, photographers, uh coming to the lake, and you always have done. Now I know of quite a few people that have um, shall I say, uh dived in and not come out. I don't want to use the words on here, so and not been retrieved to my knowledge. And when I come here with my intuitive psychic self, there's always this extra bit of energy that draws me to the water, and I've walked round here in pitch black at midnight. Um although they close gates at a certain time, there is a way-in from the canal, and I've walked round here, then I've walked round here at full moon, and the moon's shining on the pond, the water, it glistens like I've never seen water glisten. It's got a special property this water has. I don't know if other people notice that, and I'm sure people might comment and let me know. But it has a special property, and even photographs that I've taken of the way you walked, then they put in proper pathways, and then councils I think became involved, and they put accessibility for wheelchairs and bicycles and all that kind of thing. Although it gave access to more people, it began to lose its originality. And I think when you see something grow from the beginning, and then the changes are made, although better, they're not better from the beginning of how you remember it. And that also meant that I was growing up and getting older to see those changes, but I still come back here, so I'm sitting here now in my car, and I haven't got time to walk round it. Sitting here in my car, and the amount of ducks, the different ducks that are on the water, is just gorgeous. The trees change in colour, obviously. Now they're all gold, um, hanging over and just tapping the water and creating ripples. And I've just seen what I believe are little tiny Jenny Wrens. I've also seen some um what you call it, robins, and then your usual blackbirds, and um there was a couple of magpies as well, and that's just sitting here. There's normally swans and geese, but I don't know if the geese have all gone now because this is November. Maybe the geese have gone. But I wonder if I walked out with some geese food, if they'd um all come up. They're very, very tame, and I've seen children just standing there and being surrounded by them, and they're not pecked at, they just come and uh want to take um the bread. Going back to when I was probably eleven or twelve, to be honest, I was definitely at secondary school. Um, or to when we used to come bring our towel and um lay down in the sand and just talk and just let life go by. Those were the days when you were allowed to go out. Can't remember if my mum knew that this is where I came to, but anyway, nevertheless, I came here very, very often. Um and we just the days would just go. We'd go out early morning. Well, we used to have to do jobs in the house, then we'd meet somewhere, and then we'd walk here, and then it would be that's it. Oh, it's starting to get dark, we'd better go better go home. And that was probably ten, half past ten at night, and we were out all day long. We'd bring food or someone would bring food. We never purchased food out, or we'd perhaps give maybe a bit of money to go and get a packet of Chris and a chocolate bar or something. But I think we used to bring sandwiches, if I remember rightly, and a bottle of pop. Um and very occasionally I'd be given a bigger bottle of pop to share, my mum used to say. But um we did share everything, you know. But it's just such magical times, but I never realised then how magical the place was, but it always had a drawer. And even my dad used to walk us round here, me and my sister, um, and I think we used to go with one of the neighbours, but we didn't walk from home to here. We used to come in the car, as I've done today, and then walk around. And I think my dad would have fished here as well, but this uh the fish in here now is I think licensed only, and you get the fisherman, not just with a rod and a maggot bucket, um, you get the fisherman with all the gear, the tent, and all the bells ringing, whistles blowing, I've caught a fish kind of gear. You know, very calming, very relaxing, and to spend a night here must be just wonderful. Um, I do find it a rather spooky place in certain areas, and I have had people touch that aren't there, real people, touch my hand as I've been walking past in this particular area, and I've also seen uh different energies emerging um all around, um, but then I do see easily, so it's not just me ever walking round on my own, which is kind of comforting really. Have I moved on from this place? Because sometimes when you visit the past, it's like you're still in that past, but I think because I've visited here before 11, but definitely 11 on my own, um, with my father, and then bringing my children here, and then bringing my grandchildren here, it was always let's go to the water park, or let's go to the water park, and then they built um a little swing area playground. So then the grandchildren, let's take the grandchildren to the swing area at the water park, you know. So it's always been a thing. Now people have moved away from the area, family and that. Um, and I don't live in the area, but I do visit my mum. So I do come back sometimes, and I will come back and have a walk around, and I'll record it to see if you can see anything. It's about I used to jog round here. Me and one of my daughters, we used to jog round. We got on this fitness thing, and we used to walk, then we walked faster, then we jogged, and then we went twice round. I don't know if we ever did three times because it was always time restricted, you know. Um, but yeah, always fabulous. There's only two cars here and mine today, but heaving in the summer, and you can sit by the side of the lake, and there are places where you can just drop down a little bit, maybe paddle your feet, but I've never seen people swimming in here for years and years, but we used to. We used to swim in here, um, which was quite wonderful. There is another place over the other side of the A38 that we used to walk to and around with a next door neighbour and his children, and I remember once I was with him. My dad wasn't there, I don't think, or my dad was joining later. My mum never came on these walks, um, she was always doing cleaning or something, um, but um, or something housy. But we used to go with the next door neighbour and his children, and I can remember once, uh, I could remember seeing my dad coming towards us, so but we were in the we used to call it a lagoon, but again, it was an area where um the gravel had been taken out. So we said, Are you going to the lagoons? So we went to the lagoons, and then dad said, I think I remember dad saying, 'I'll join you.' But anyway, I remember being in the water and dad coming towards us, and I was like, I was keeping myself afloat, cycling under the water as you do. And for some reason, I stopped keeping myself afloat and I went down, but I couldn't touch the bottom. I went down a lot, and there was no bottom, and no bottom. And I think I panicked a bit, and I was trying to, I remember flapping my hands and trying to push myself up, and then there was my dad walking towards, and then I went down again. And then I remember the neighbour, he swam in and and rescued me. Um, and um I swam to the side then, and uh as I swam to the side, I sat there, and then my dad came and he was like, Don't tell your mother. And I lived my whole life not telling my mother things that I'd done. In fact, I still feel that now, and it's funny, isn't it? How when something's drilled into you that you carry it with you, don't tell your mother. He he always used to say that on so many things. Oh my goodness, if she knew some of the stuff. I mean, she's still alive now, so unlikely to listen to this podcast unless somebody uh gives it to her. But um, oh, don't tell your mother this, don't tell your mother that. Let's go here, don't tell your mother. He'd say we were going to a certain place or a drive in the car with me. He never didn't take my sister so much. Um, but she was four years younger, and he'd say, Oh, don't tell your mother, don't tell your mother where we've been. And I used to be like, Oh, okay. And I used to run in the house and go up to my room, so she didn't ask me any questions. Oh dear God. But anyway, that was the other side, that was in the lagoon where we used to swim. And you know what? We used there's a railway say we've passed so much rocket and natural salad leaves, but we didn't know what to buy what to pick in them days, but I can imagine there was so much rocket around, and rocket, you know, I love the peppery taste. Rocket, uh watercress, wild watercress, so delicious. But yeah, that's just a little bit about so coming here. How do I feel? I feel quite a satisfaction actually. Satisfied that I've watched the place grow, satisfied to think that I've been here all these years, coming and going, bringing different people, and you know, just having a walk round. I can remember when after operations and that I'd come and have a walk, but sometimes I could go not even a quarter of the way and turn round and come back. But always eventually I made it the whole way round. It was like testing my stamina, really. But yeah, I feel satisfied and I feel still feel that deep connection to it. It's just a beautiful place to be. Those people that don't see certain beauty or feel energies will just see it as a body of water with trees and ducks and things, animals and that around. But there's always people like that that just see things for that, not for the inner beauty, the cosmic connection as well, the serenity. It's almost like the trees are talking to you and are charismatic. And that's just um tipped a point with me as well. Trees talking to you. Most of the places now that I go where trees are, I hold my hand to a branch and ask it to uh dip its branch to my hand, uh, or I ask it to move with a yes-no um answering questions. So, although I'm not going to do that today because I'm over my time now, I'm going to come back and do that here. Next time I drive up this way, I shall do that. Make sure it's not a windy day. Um, so I hope you've enjoyed my journey into the past. But yeah, my journey into the past, Branston Water Park. So if you ever see the signs of the A38 near at Branston, take a drive, take a detour to Branston Water Park. Take a picture of you standing by the water and send it to me. That would be amazing. Or just a picture of the water park, send it to me and let me see that you've been there. You won't regret it, and it's a lovely walk around. There are toilets, and you know what? I think the same container, you'll know what I mean if you visit, for the toilets has been here the whole time. They might have been wooden years ago, or there might not have been any, but they've been a metal toilet for years, and I guess that's so they could hose them down. Who knows? But anyway, when you're desperate, a toilet is um always welcome, isn't it? But let's welcome the more hens that I can see at the edge of the water pecking um into the um gravel to find the little um bits of food. There's two robins, and that has to be a Jenny Wren. It is so so tiny. I can't think what else it can be. But yeah, so I hope you've enjoyed that journey into my past and hearing me reminisce, really, have the most amazing, connected day to day.