On a bright, sunny and windless day and given an uninterrupted expanse of water it is a beautiful sight to behold if there is a mirror sheen perfection of a reflection over the surface.
Of course the calibre of the vision is very much dependant on the surroundings, for example a top drawer reflection would be of snow capped mountains, lower scree slopes and the greenery of the tree line as depicted in the bluey green crystal waters of a tarn lake as opposed to that of the surviving cooling towers of a coal fired power station as seen in the murky and suspect oily sheen of an open surface water balancing attenuation basin.
I came across just such a contrast in the circumstances of a reflected scene some years ago, well approaching 5 years this coming June.
The smooth and unfussed body of water had just about settled down after a tempestuous couple of days of heavy rain and moody cloudy weather. After what had felt like a rehearsal for the end of the world with wind, torrential rain, thunder and lighting the arrival of a bright and cloudless day, a tuesday to be exact, was welcome and very much appreciated. We were just missing a rainbow as the heaven sent promise that we had been spared a nasty and lingering death in a massive puddle.
The sun, back to its normal early summer strength, would rapidly evaporate the new lake-like stretch of water that had taken up position on the lowest part of the surroundings. In the meantime, as I looked eastwards with the sun just passing over my right shoulder the full reflected image was in view.
From my left extremity of vision to the far right stretched a line of modern houses, two storey, mellow brick under a mixture of grey or reddish Redland tiled roofs.
They were upside down.
Obviously, being a reflection and not because of a gross misinterpretation of the Architects drawings by a rookie Site Manager. The whole scene was apt and succint because the housing development was called Shinewater Park.
At some very early stage of the development plan for the huge residential estate area, possibly welly boot and virgin field, something will have caught the eye and imagination of the Builder and the seed of an idea for an all encompassing name for acre upon acre of very similar boxed shapes with windows and doors will have been born. This must be the only explanation for some quite bland naming for housing developments such as The Lilacs, The Heathers, The Hawthorns, The Oaks, The Pines and so on. Funnily enough such potential attributes to give maturity and vegetative attraction to a site will have been the first victims of the bulldozers and JCB's.
The location of Shinewater Park, when I had known it as just a collection of farmers fields, did not to my knowledge have any watercourses apart from a few drainage ditches and muddy excavations and so I speculate that the naming process was out of that well thumbed publication of "Aspirational Names for Bland New Housing" and paraphrased "when there is otherwise no inspiration or enlightenment".
The wider area was under very significant development by a number of National, Regional and Local House builders and all were major underachievers in the naming game. This was more than evident from the array of yellow directional signs attached to all lamp posts for some miles around trying to draw in prospective buyers dissatisfied or disillusioned by their current homes and easily persuaded by the promise of a specification to include double glazing, en suite facilities, central heating and a choice of kitchen and bathroom fittings, all for a bargain price as long as it ended in the psychologically advantageous £...,999.
In some recognition of the bleakness of the location far out on the northern frontier of the main urban area, there must have been a conference amongst the Management Teams of all of the participating developers to cherry pick from a very obviously short list of potential names for their respective tranches. 'Aspire' and ' Revelation' must have been hard fought over but went to the National Fim with the most financial muscle. Second dibs will have been for 'The Pastures' and possibly because of a freakish archeaelogical find, 'Sovereign Park'. Third in the hirearchy will have gone to a smaller scale operation reluctantly settling on 'The Village' (idiots) and 'Kings Park'. The trendy new boys in the house building game may have opted for some blue sky thinking outside the box with the marketing of their selected acres under the names of 'Vogue' and
'Oxford Violet'.
So the glossy brochures promising a new life, outlook and rosey future will have been printed and laid out in the hastily erected Show Homes together with a perpetual supply of freshly brewed coffee, bubbly Sales Assistants and clever tactics of making the display rooms appear larger by not hanging any internal doors and using scaled down, almost dolls house sized furniture.
Shinewater Park was no different in terms of a subtle but nevertheless relentless and menacing hard sell.
Unfortunately, the reflection that I was gazing upon on that tuesday in June was from a full scale flood that had actually swept through the regimented lines and arrangements of executive housing bringing with the tide of water considerable damage to homes and possessions and the rather more uninsurable and unquantifiable demoralisation of the residents whose dreams were now soggy, pulped and layered with a film of agricultural silt.
I did feel genuinely distressed for the owners although building on a floodplain was always going to be problematic. The climate modelling by the Environment Agency was not at fault as they had placed a 1 in 100 year chance of a major inundation in that location. It was just unfortunate that 2007 was that year.
My greater sympathy went to the residents of a street close to Shinewater Park. They lived nearer the sewage treatment plant serving the huge housing estate and which had succumbed to the flood.
There was some hint at the manifestation of a worst case scenario on the road sign at the entrance to the street which read 'Blackwater Way'.
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