The Dedicated Ophthalmology Referral Practice

An important part of the scheme at Marlbrook is a reed bed system for dealing with waste water from the hospital and car park. Waste water from the hospital is filtered via three beds and is fed into a lake which will attract wildlife. Water from the car park will be fed via canals and ditches to the pond which will also feed a wetland soakaway. Water from the hospital will will be pumped from one bed to another as a result of the flatness of the site, and water in the final lake will be recirculated to flow over a waterfall to add some interest to the lake and oxygenate the water so it is healthy for the wildlife. The whole scheme has been installed by reed bed expert Dr Rick Hudson of Cresswater.

Plan for the reed bed system.
Water is pumped to the first red bed (A on the plan above) where it is filtered and then flows by gravity to the second Vertical bed (B). From there it is pumped to the third bed (C) after which it flows by gravity into the Pond (D). By the time it reaches there it is clean enough to support life and be circulated around the pond via the waterfall. Rain water from the roof of the building and the car park flows into the pond via a series of ditches and canals (E) and any overflow from the pond enters a wetland soakaway (F) to the side of the pond.

29 October 2001

Digging starts on the reed bed system. Four holes are needed - three for the reed beds and one for the pond. The earth removed from the pond, the lowest part of the site, is banked up to form the level for the highest part - approximately 1.1 metres above existing ground level which is sufficient for the gravity feed from one bed to another.

08 November 2001

The beds fully dug out. The scale is shown with a man standing in the bottom of the pond with the bank and waterfall to his right.

11 November

The Humus tank and pumping chamber are installed. The first stage of the system where the liquip is separated from the solids, shall we say, i.e. the Humus.
Rick Hudson is heaving the chamber top.

12 November

The liners go in. Something of a job in a big pond! Helpfully the digger is on hand to assist with the liner in the pond.

12 November

"Just pull that over a bit." Making sure the liner is eavenly spread over the edges of the pond which has a thick layer of sand over the soil.

13 November

The liners complete in the beds and the pond.

14 November

The reed beds under construction.

14 November

The filtration system is gradually built up in each bed and each one connected to the next.

15 November

The reed bed is finally planted. This is the first bed into which water flows. The second bed is visible to the right of this one.

16 November

The waterfall is completed behind the pond. Water will be pumped from the pond to the top of the waterfall which will help with oxygenation so that the water is always healthy for the wildlife.

17 November

The landscaping around the pond being finished by Nick.

17 November

The scheme finished apart from waiting for the water - supllied courtesy of the rain forecast most days!

02 February 2002

The pond full after the downpours at the end of January and begining of February

02 February

The pond ready to be planted so that we can attract a wide range of wildlife.

02 February

The edge of the pond showing the gravel filter at the end of the canals leading from the hospital roof and car park. All the water from the site ends up in the pond from where it will evapourate or soak away.

02 February

The waterfall ready to run. We have built this to hold small pools of water on each step so that different forms of wildlife can live in the waterfall.

The culprits:

A family business - P G & R Bemand - was responsible for much of the physical work.

Nick, Tom's ground assistant - clearly a man happy with his work.

Tom Bemand - the govenor - a dab hand with the level.

But not the end of the story....

On 16 December we arrived at the site to discover that there had been an invasion of rabbits which had caused considerable damage to the three reed beds. At that stage they had not damaged the liners but the problem was very serious and we had to make the decision that the entire site would have to be protected with a rabbit proof fence. Until that was done we were forced to erect a temporary fence around each bed.

And finally.....

The horizontal reed bed replanted.