Stoney Cove, Leicestershire, UK
| Visit the new Stoney Cove Forum Stoney Cove, Leicestershire - probably the most dived site in the UK is some 100 miles from Cheltenham. Five of us who dive with a local club in Cheltenham ventured out on a cold Friday morning in December 1997 to savour the delights of Stoney. Our dive party was made up of Paul, fresh from surviving his PADI Open Water course and sporting his new Aladdin Sport dive computer (rumour has he tried it out in his bath, it was only after reading the manual he discovered it only switches on at a depth of 0.5 metres), Steve, with about 15 UK dives under his belt, Kay, another survivor of the recent Open Water course, Ian, an Instructor and myself, always game for anything! After a mini-tour between Junctions 2 and 3 of the M6 several times! Kay, our navigator I should point out, and myself finally managed to get to Stoney, but well after the van with the lads. Couldn't let them know we'd got lost on the M6 so told a porky that we'd stopped for breakfast, this meant we couldn't pig out on bacon butties at the serving hatch. |
 Stoney Cove at the end of a hard days diving. |
| Stoney has several layers at varying
depths (6m, 20m & 35m). There are three main entry/exit points. A slipway
you can stride/roll-in, the old wooden platform providing a stride entry., or
the recently addded long jetty. Until arrival of the jetty, the platform and
its ladder were the most used entry/exit points. With 100,000 divers visiting the site each year, the platform must have been the most used dive point in the UK, if not the world. I've been here in the past at the weekend when its been very busy with 6-8 divers doing final buddy checks and others exiting at the same time. Below the platform at 6.8 metres was like Oxford Street on Christmas Eve with 2-3m viz. at the bottom as it got churned up by the novices. We plan our first dive as the deepest. |
 Stoney-Cove Inland Dive-Site |
Paul & Kay have a 18m depth limit with their Open Water qualification so we plan to stride in, group together, descend, fin past the plane fuselage at 6m, turn left and visit the Helicopter. Ian is to lead the dive with Steve & Paul buddying up and Kay & myself following. Disaster strikes! Remember those very sensible words in your diving training manual about always carrying spare fin and mask straps, O rings etc... it's my first dive with my brand new bright yellow fins and the strap buckle snaps as I put on my second fin. Everyone else is bobbing away on the surface in cold, cold water at this stage, luckily their 7mm Semi-drys hoods save them from my expletives.......and the snorkels in their mouths save me from a few of theirs. |
 Stoney Cove quarry in yester-year! (Date of picture unknown) The bottom level above is the current 20m platform with the road connecting to the 6m platform. The 35m level has not yet been exposed! |
Fortunately, Ian is a veteran and has a spare set of fins in the van so we are able to rescue my pride and my days diving! Yes, I have since purchased a toolbox and appropriate spares. The dive goes well. We follow our plan and pass the plane fuselage, head left and descend to 16m and follow the contours of the 6m/20m ridge to the Wessex helicopter. The Wessex was bought from the RAF after it was cannibalised for parts during the Gulf War. I suppose it provides a dive-training site for local Forces divers if they used the Cove but it adds a bit of interest for us recreationals. Some bright spark has placed a triangular, Man-at-Work traffic sign beside the Wessex and Paul poses for a quick photo. A good 36-minute dive. With an air temperature of about 10C and a water temp at 18m of 10C, we opt for a short 40-minute interval and grab a roll and a tea from the hatch while we wait for our tanks to be filled at the onsite dive-shop. Some of the wimps in our party in semi's hit the hot showers for a quick warm-up - much more hygienic than peeing in your wet suit! |
 Giant strides at Stoney: With over 100,000 divers using the site last year, this platform must be the most used entry point in the UK, if not the world! |
On to dive two, we opt for a similar route as dive one but keep shallower at 7 metres. We follow the contours of the 6.8m ledge and do a circle around to the blockhouse underneath the onsite Pub. Ian points to the windows in the blockhouse and I grab an arty-farty photo of the light reflecting on the surface above - a bit borrrinnng I know! My buddy has now hit 120 bar and 25minutes are on the clock, so we start to bimble back via the fuselage to reach the ladder below the platform. Next thing, Paul is pointing furiously inside the plane, and alternating his finger pointing by holding his arms at full stretch. Don't remember this dive signal, so fin up to him to have a look and there, staring at us, motionless, is a one-metre Pike with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. I fired off a few camera shots at him as he poses for us. Eventually, he stares us out and we head back to the ladder, as I glance behind, the pike glides off into the murkiness of the 8m viz. |
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| The local Stoney blurb says that the
Cove has "crayfish, carp, perch, roach, with the size of the pike
being the subject of many a fishy tale." Back on the surface, all
the talk is about the actual size of the pike, which seemed to grow in size as
we headed to the pub (allowing for the 25% magnification factor under water of
course). All in all, a good days diving. The following photos were kindly provided by Steve Rogers ©2001. |
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 The download from my Aladin dive-computer gives you a typical dive-profile of a visit to the Helicopter at Stoney. |
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Page last updated 16 June 2001