Park Life: Restoring The Leighton Brook

The Leighton Brook is the focus of an exciting refurbishment of Leighton Brook Park in Crewe, Cheshire. The project, funded by the local authority, Cheshire East Council, aims to enhance the park and create a sense of ownership and pride from the local community. In recent years the park has fallen into disrepair and the new works will include improvement of drainage, footpaths, play areas, lighting and aesthetics. Haycock have designed a scheme for the brook, which forms the heart of this project, creating a natural and pleasant place to walk, relax and play.

Upstream of the park the brook is culverted before it opens into a canalised channel that runs through the north of the park. Currently the brook is disconnected from its floodplain and marginalized from the park, and is hidden from view by woodland and bank side vegetation. The proposed scheme aims to bring landscape connectivity and focus to the channel by giving it a more natural sinuosity with resemblance to its historic form. This will help to enhance the appearance of the brook and integrate it with the rest of the park.

It is proposed that the bed of the brook will be raised to allow reconnection with the floodplain and create wetland habitats within the river corridor. The increased interaction between the channel and the floodplain would help create the appearance of a more natural system, whilst still ensuring that the neighbouring properties are not at risk of flooding. A mosaic of habitats will result from the changing hydrology of the site and should attract increased wildlife to the park. Culverts and concrete structures within the channel will be removed or hidden as much as possible to aid the naturalisation of this section of the brook.

New footpaths will guide walkers along the watercourse and proposed strips of woodland clearance will open up new views towards the brook and increase awareness of its renewed existence. The designed gently sloping banks will allow more opportunities for interaction with the water for dog walkers and people who want to play in the brook. It is hoped that the improved visual appearance of the brook and its associated park will bring a renewed sense of pride and possession for the local community, increasing their respect for this public space and, thus, reducing littering and vandalism. Additionally, the restored brook will help to create a fresh image for the park, complimenting the new housing developments, and boost public perception of the overall area.

The scheme has strong resemblance to one of Haycock’s past projects, the Sinderland Brook in Altrincham.  To a large extent, it was the nationally acclaimed success of the Sinderland Brook river restoration project that inspired the local district council to pursue this new scheme in Crewe.