Sinai begins to see the completion of this important historic feature

For the past two years Sinai Park House Trust has been working on the restoration of the rare Georgian plunge pool which is fed from a natural spring of Chalybeate water, often referred to in maps as the ‘Holy Well’ or the ‘Lord’s Wells’.

A combination of bad weather, Great Crested Newts, and funding setbacks has meant that we are only now beginning to see the completion of this important historic feature.

The work has made possible through the funding of The National Forest Company (NFCo) and encouragement of their brilliant staff, which has helped with creating a new footpath up from the forest that surrounds Sinai Park House, developing new interpretation and celebration events to promote the footpath.

Now we have received a new grant from NFCo which has enabled us to purchase some vital pieces of stone to complete the restoration of the plunge pool structure and create a safe landscaped area around the pool to keep visitors safe from the deep water.

We hope that in due course people will be able to actually enter the pool for health and wellbeing but this will be carefully managed and in the meantime we would urge visitors not to do so particularly as the pool contains the Great Crested Newts which are an endangered species (although there is a very healthy population of GCNs locally due to the abundance of spring fed ponds).

The restoration work has been undertaken by a conservation specialist stone mason with help from the Friends of Sinai Park House volunteers and the next phase will be see the Burton Air Cadets as well as Burton College Construction students helping with the landscaping. The project will be completed by the end of April 2022 and we hope to hold a celebration event in the early Summer.

Photo caption: Ian Vanes-Jones (featured in main image) is a Friend of Sinai Park House, volunteer and Course Leader at Burton and South Derbyshire College.

Sinai Park House Trust is the charity coordinating plans to save and restore access to Sinai Park House.

To become a Friend of Sinai Park House, email laura@sinaiparkhouse.co.uk