A SERIES of holes have been drilled in Wanstead Park in an attempt to solve the mystery of the leaking lake system.

Six ten-centimetre-wide, six-foot-deep test wells have been dug by the City of London Corporation in a small area around the Heronry Pond in a bid to find out whether underground water is flowing in or out of the shallow basin.

The once-popular lake currently only holds about a foot of water and dries up completely every summer since it was hit by a bomb in the Second World War.

Ralph Potter of the Wanstead Parkland's Community Project said: “The pond has a very sad story behind it about a solider who came back from the D-Day landing in 1944 and took is girlfriend for a row in a boat on the lake.

“They were both killed by a doodle-bug bomb which blew a hole in the bottom of the lake and it's been leaking ever since.

“There have been several attempts to mend it over the years but little progress has been made.”

He added: “You wouldn't even notice the holes but we hope it's the first step towards the full scale restoration of the park.”