The Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake is a

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

in the United Kingdom, named after the Olympic rowers Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir

Matthew Pinsent Sir Matthew Clive Pinsent, (; born 10 October 1970) is an English rower and broadcaster. During his rowing career, he won 10 world championship gold medals and four consecutive Olympic gold medals. Since retiring, he has worked as a sports b ...

. The lake and its boathouse are specifically designed for training use, and provide training, medical, and scientific facilities for the GB rowing squad, and for

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in preparation for the

Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known as the Uni ...

. The lake is also used by crews from

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

and

Oxford Brookes University Oxford Brookes University (OBU; formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. Th ...

. The lake is situated in the

South Oxfordshire South Oxfordshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England. Its council is temporarily based outside the district at Abingdon-on-Thames pending a p ...

parish of Eye & Dunsden between the

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

suburb of Caversham and the village of

Sonning Eye Sonning Eye is a hamlet on the River Thames in the Sonning Common ward of South Oxfordshire, England, in the civil parish of Eye & Dunsden (one of its four small settlements), at what is, since 1974, the southernmost tip of Oxfordshire. Geo ...

. It was created by the selective

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

and reclamation of part of the

Caversham Lakes Caversham Lakes is a set of lakes created through gravel extraction between the suburb of Caversham, Berkshire, Caversham in Reading, Berkshire and the hamlet of Sonning Eye in Oxfordshire, just north of the River Thames and also refers to th ...

adjoining the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

and which had originally resulted from gravel extraction by Sonning Works. The £13 million project was the work of David Sherriff and a partnership of the Caversham Lakes Trust,

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, ...

, the Amateur Rowing Association and the

Thames and Kennet Marina The Thames and Kennet Marina is located at Caversham Lakes in south Oxfordshire, England, just north off the River Thames on the reach above Sonning Lock. It is just to the east of Caversham, a suburb in the north of Reading, Berkshire. The m ...

. The lake was officially opened in April 2006 by the two men after which it is named.

References

External links

*
Visit by Steve Redgrave
* from the Amateur Rowing Association
Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake to Promote Talent at Caversham

SportFocus
', 12/11/01, including an aerial view 2006 establishments in England Sports venues completed in 2006 Rowing in the United Kingdom Rowing venues in the United Kingdom Sports venues in Oxfordshire Sonning Lakes of Oxfordshire Rowing on the River Thames South Oxfordshire District Artificial lakes of the United Kingdom University College, Oxford Rowing at the University of Oxford {{Oxfordshire-geo-stub