Sywell reservoir

Sywell reservoir was a place that I stumbled across and boy am I glad I did.I started going here when my daughter Louise was swimming training at Moulton on Sunday mornings. She eventually moved clubs and I drifted away, gone but soon to be back and back in style mob handed.

The venue couldn't be any better with large carparks and a safe , hassle free walk with water as and when you want it and no cyclists.Dogs off leads for 90% of the time and a pretty good cafe with the luxury of toilets,seriously what else do you need?

Us hardy Whizzers have supported this walk through thick and thin over time and i love this..It's the walk that gets the Vs going from initial carnage to fatigue at the end on the dam but with the tantalizing prize of a sausage roll as the reward for our beautiful boys and girls.
Built in 1906 , the 330yard long dam was built to service Higham Ferrers and Rushden and carried enough water supply for a year.After the construction of two much larger reservoirs at Draycote and Pitsford, Sywell was surplus and was closed in 1979 and opened as a country park to serve needs of Northampton and beyond.
The great thing about Sywell is that you can let the dogs go although you must have control at all times.Depending on the route, we tend to go left these days, there is a nature reserve after 20mins or so.It's on lead here and we always respect this unlike the occassional dog walker with dog ckearly running loose .It is such an easy place to get around and as Mick Ronson of Spiders from Mars fame answered when asked about playing guitar , the response was " i just plug it in the amp, turn it up and away you go"
Sywell is that simple, plug and play.A few cautionary notes of course with nesting swans and fisherman which both need respect but that really is it .There are the occassional dog walkers who pick up their dogs but these are few and far between and thankfully are not really an issue. We often encounter a few familiar faces with one being a lovely old boy who alway,always,always asked if we have ridgebacks? I give him a poilte no they are not and he always tells the tale of his time in Rhodesia.We bump into the Beagle club and the Border Terriers as well but I'm not being snobby but Vizslas are , a step above🤣
This was also the venue for the infamous sandwich gate incident where Clare and Matt's Poppy decided it would be great fun to steal a sandwich from a picnic, the people were NOT amused and after Matt, bless him, offered to buy baguettes with no success offered the said group to go away using the very best in anglo saxon expletives.
One thing we must do is investigate the Romanian's BBQ setup as it is simply amazing. Suckling pigs on the go with music and drink and lots of food on offer, this puts sandwich man in his miserable box.
All said , Sywell is good value and popular and at £3.20 to park with a season pass under £30 is pretty damned good.Along with a good cafe and a throng of visitors that can't be arsed to arrive until gone 11.30am makes it perfect for us.