Lake Meadows is a superb thirty acre Victorian park a stones throw away from Billericay high street. Once privately owned, the park and its five acre lake came into Council control in July 1936. The park and its lake remain under the administration of Basildon District Council, although Mick Toomer has managed the fishing on their behalf since 1993.

The town of Billericay is of historical interest. A wealth of Iron age and Roman remains have been found locally, and more continue to be found when deep excavations are carried out.

In 1620, Billericay was the setting off point for six local residents who joined the Mayflower for her historic voyage to the new world. These pilgrims eventually arrived in America to set up home in the place that became known as New England.

The park now known as Lake Meadows once formed part of the Hill House Estate, which was just one of the estates and farms owned by local landowner Major Thomas Jenner Spitty of the Essex Rifles.

At one time Major Spitty lived at Hill House, before moving to Hurlock, a house in the main street. Once installed at Hurlock one of his first acts was to have a gazebo built on the roof, and a telescope installed. From this lofty tower he would watch the work on his farms during the day, and study astronomy at night.

Major Spitty was seriously rich. It is estimated that in the early 1890’s his annual income from land rental alone was some £2,500. In today’s terms that would be worth millions of pounds a year. At a time when Major Spitty was seriously rich the agricultural workers were exceedingly poor. In the early 1890’s a series of poor corn harvests, combined with an influx of cheap corn from America, had caused mass unemployment amongst the agricultural workers.

Providing work for the out of work farm labourers was one of the reasons why Major Spitty decided to have a lake dug in the meadows of Hill House. As a keen shooting man he was also anxious to encourage more wildfowl onto the estate, and a lake would certainly do so.

Throughout 1893 and 1894 local agricultural workers toiled to hand dig the lake on wages of a shilling a day. When finished the lake was known as The Moat. It was slightly bigger than it is today, and also a lot deeper. Said to be over twenty feet deep in places the lake had a boathouse at each end. One of these was designed to look like a small castle. The lake certainly attracted wildfowl, and Lord Kitchener of Khartoum is said to have been a regular member of the elegant shooting parties at the Hill House Estate.

Major Spitty died in 1898, and Lake Meadows, as it became known, stayed in private hands until 1936 when it passed to council control.

In the 1960’s the lake was drained. The deeper areas were filled in and it was reduced slightly in size at the Eastern end. A new weir also reduced the water level, leaving the depth varying between two and six feet.

In the late 1960’s and 1970’s Lake Meadows was well known in carp angling circles as one of the few day waters where day ticket anglers could realistically pursue double figure carp. It attracted many up and coming carp anglers, quite a few of whom have gone on to become big names in modern day carp fishing.

Since taking over the management of the lake Mick has been instrumental in widening its appeal beyond carp anglers. The introduction of more than a ton and a half of bream and roach, plus a scattering of perch, chub and barbel have made the lake equally attractive to pole, waggler and quivertip anglers.