Wish Stream

Wish Stream
source at Wishmoor Cross track Wishmoor Bottom track Kings Ride track track weirs Dawnay Road drains weir Bathing Pool Series of small ponds ... ... and weirs (4) Upper Lake Lower Lake weirs (5) weirs weir weir Retail park culvert  A30   A321  roundabout River Blackwater

The Wish Stream runs through an area where the geology consists of a layer of London Clay, on top of which is a layer of Bagshot sand, often covered by gravel. In places, the underlying clay is quite close to the surface, resulting in rainfall running over the surface, as it is unable to drain away. Although the theory that Wishmoor Cross, where the stream rises, was once a wishing well, and that this was the derivation of the name, it is much more likely that it derives from the Celtic word for "water".[2] The stream formed the boundary between Berkshire to the north-west and Surrey to the south-east for the whole of its length[3] until 1990.

The Wish Stream rises from a spring on heath land to the north of Camberley, at Wishmoor Cross, a little above the 330-foot (100 m) contour. The surrounding land is used for military training, and access is strictly controlled.[4] As it flows to the south west, it is crossed by a track, and has already dropped down to 322 feet (98 m). It enters a valley called Wishmoor Bottom, and is crossed by another track, after which it is flanked by another channel on either side. The three parallel channels pass under King's Ride and another track, before they skirt round the back edge of military housing that forms part of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst estate. Here the three channels are inter-connected with sluices,[1] and one of them enters a large tank, in an area which is described as a "water catchment area".[5] The stream was important for the Academy, as it provided sufficient water to supply all of their needs, even in the summer months. The water is surface drainage from the surrounding moorlands, and in Victorian times, tanks in the bed of the river collected the water, which was pumped to reservoirs by a steam engine.[6]

Below the tanks, the remaining two channels continue downwards, passing over weirs and under Dawnay Road, to be joined by several drains, supplied by nearby springs. The water drops into the Bathing Pool over a weir, with a small side-channel bypassing the lake, which has another weir at its outlet. The stream then follows the north and western edge of a rectangle of land on which the Victory College stands. It consists of a series of small ponds and weirs, and at the south-western corner of the rectangle, it enters the Lower Lake.[1] The surface is 226 feet (69 m) above ordnance datum.[7] There is anothr lake, the Upper Lake, to the east, which collects water from three drains at the far end, and has an overflow which feeds into the Lower Lake.[1]

The outflow from the Lower Lake is crossed by Yorktown Bridge, and is punctuated by a series of weirs as it continues its descent to the Blackwater. It splits into two channels, one labelled Old Mill Stream, with three weirs on it, and the other labelled Wish Stream, with a weir at the upper end. As the channels leave the grounds of the Academy, they enter culverts which have allowed a superstore to be built over them, and emerge on the other side as a single stream. This then passes under the roundabout where the A30, A321 and A331 road meet,[1] but construction of the roundabout in 1990 as part of the Blackwater Valley road scheme meant that the stream had to be diverted to the north, and the section through the roundabout no longer follows the county boundaries.[8] As it enters the Blackwater, it is at 193 feet (59 m) above ordnance datum.[7]

In 1800, the land through which the Wish Stream ran was part of the estate of William Pitt, but an agreement was reached in 1801 that the government would buy 450 acres (180 ha) on which to build a college for the training of military personnel. The decision was ratified by Royal Warrant in 1802, and included a Manor House, a farm and a water mill.[9] The site was almost sold again in 1807, due to lack of progress, but work started in 1808, with the construction of a bridge over the outlet of the mill pond, the erection of fencing around the edge of the grounds, and the planting of trees on the slopes below the south-eastern edge of the mill pond.[10] The main building for the College was built just above the mill pond, which was then enlarged to become the Lower Lake, with the sand and gravel removed from the pond being used to hide the lower floor of the College building.[11]

Prior to the excavation of the Bathing Lake, the area where it now is was a swamp, from which the Wish Stream emerged.[12] Work began on creating it in 1814, and it was completed in 1818. The project was not without its difficulties, as the Royal Staff Corps who were carrying out the work asked for protection from the cadets at the Academy, who were using the wheeling planks as rafts on the unfinished Lake. The planks had to be retrieved from the lake when needed, to allow the work to proceed, and they asked that a sergeant be posted to prevent the cadets from interfering with the work. Work on the enlargement of the Lower Lake appears to have been in progress at the same time, certainly in 1818.[13]

The wish Stream was diverted around the Victory College building, and a series of ponds and weirs were created. In order to improve the fishing, the ponds were lined with chalk and gravel, to reduce the acidity of the water, but by 1982 this had been covered by a thick layer of sludge and rotting leaves, raising the acidity again.[14] The ponds on the north side of the Victory College are known as the Upper and Lower Churchill Pools, after the Whinston Churchill memorial hall which overlooks them. On the west side, the ponds were known as the Princes Pool, the Upper and Lower Rose Pools and the Bridge Pool.[15] However, in 1979 the Lower Rose Pool was renamed Plum's Pool, in honour of a member of staff known as 'Plum' Warner on his retirement, acknowledging all the work he had done to create a thriving Trout Fishing Club within the Academy from very small beginnings.[16]