After many discussions and meetings, the council tasked a local architect John Nuttall to design and build the boating lake which was first opened officially on the 6th May 1935.
It opened in time to celebrate the Kings Royal Jubilee and was called ‘The Jubilee Lake’ The day of the opening was amazingly busy as can be seen by the below photograph!
It was initially owned and manned by the local council but over time the boats fell into a state of disrepair and the intention was to close it down completely.
In stepped Cyril Swain. Cyril had introduced his steam trains to Hall Leys Park in 1949. When he heard the boats were to close, he requested to take them over, becoming the first private owner.
He went on to run both the boats and trains, having new boats manufactured by Brookhouse Motors in Melton Mowbray and new engines fitted.
In January 2019 I managed to track down Cyril’s son Hubert. He has told me many stories of his father’s life in the park and I have taken great delight in hearing them.
He tells me the story of ‘Denzel’ another very popular figure in Matlock. He owned and ran the small petrol station situated on Knowleston Place, just outside the park. He would ring Cyril when he saw a coach of children arrive for a visit to the park. Cyril would hot foot it to the park from his home round the corner and fire up the steam engines.
Cyril would at times feel very deflated that by the time he had got the engines ready for use, the children had already spent their time and had got on the coach to go home. Steam engines take a lot of preparation before they can be used!
His son Hubert suggested that he look into a diesel locomotive train which he could utilise for such unexpected visits and Cyril agreed to Hubert looking into it.
Hubert made some brief plans, bought a few parts and sent them to Coleby Simkins in Melton Mowbray.
After a few discussions, they made the train in just two weeks and it was safely delivered to Hall Leys Park in 1974, where it ran along side the steam trains. You can see him in the background on this picture taken in June 1979.
Eventually it became more efficient to simply run Little David and Cyril decided to retire his steam engines.
One of the engines went to an antique dealer in Matlock where it was later sold and went to Canada.
One went to Riber Castle in Matlock and later ended up at the Midland Railway Museum in Butterley, where it can still be seen on display.
There appears to be confusion as to where the third engine was retired to. There are a number of suggestions but at the moment I can’t confirm exactly where it went to.
You can read more about the individual boats and train history by following the relevant tabs.