The Lakes at Lavender Hall Wild Swimming

The Lakes at Lavender Hall is a borehole-fed swim lake at Lavender Hall Lane, Berkswell, CV7 7BN, on the old Lavender Hall Fishery site. Supervised sessions. No lifeguard. Fire pit. Award-winning café. Two 4-metre wood-fired saunas. You go because Warwickshire has a year-round bookable hour in a cleaned former fishing lake, with steps in, a café twenty metres off, and a tow float on every swim. You also go knowing you swim at your own risk, and if you have not booked you are not swimming.

Getting in

No walk-ins. Each person books their own slot and signs their own waiver. 16+ in the swim lake and the saunas; 16- and 17-year-olds need a parent or guardian with them. Open-water swim is one hour: £8 weekday, £10 weekend. Sauna and dip: £16 weekday, £18 weekend. Sauna only: £12 / £14. Sauna bookings are 55 minutes. Gift vouchers and a 10-session bundle exist. Instant email confirmation from the booking calendar.

Tow float is mandatory all year. Hire or buy on arrival, or bring your own. Wetsuit and hat are not mandatory; they recommend a hat in the cold. Check in before the session. Park for Ruby’s Lake and the café in the main areas; if the gate park is full, continue past the café. Wild Wellness and the Activity Lake have their own signs. Free parking. Designated changing.

Café is open for snacks and drinks whenever swims are running. Their café-hours grid: Tuesday drinks 15:00–20:00; Thursday and Friday hot food 09:00–13:00 and drinks 09:00–20:00; Saturday and Sunday hot food 09:00–13:00 and drinks 09:00–14:00. Food and drink on site from the café, not from your bag. No sunbathing after the slot — they do not have the space in summer.

The swim

Borehole-fed, water quality monitored. Official temperatures: about 5°C in winter to 22°C in summer. Those are averages, not a promise. Press when the swim lake opened put the loop at about 200m on a 1.25-acre clay-lined hole, four Olympic lengths, pool-style steps. The 2026 swim page does not reprint the loop length. Ask on the bank which circuit is up.

No lifeguard. Sessions are supervised with safety protocols. All levels, including a short dip. Acclimatise slowly. Afterdrop is their word for cooling after you get out — fire pit, sauna, or a hot drink in the café. Flip-flops optional. Towel, robe, bottle, float. Experience is not required. Competence is your problem because there is no RLSS on the water.

Fishing continues on other lakes. Paddleboarding is a separate ticket, 12+, adult on their own board if the paddler is under 18. Do not mix the products.

Worth knowing

Older articles still show Thursday–Sunday 08:00–18:00 plus Tuesday evenings, and an activity lake that shut in October. The 2026 official page is year-round swim and sauna, booked by the hour. Trust the calendar.

If you want a Worcestershire stream-fed Wednesday evening with RLSS boats and a 400m clockwise loop, Aztec Upton Warren is the other West Midlands pin — until 9 September 2026. If you want a Dudley NOWCA reservoir with a wristband, Netherton. This is the Berkswell borehole hour: no lifeguard, fire pit, café, float on.