IT was a chilly start to the new year for members of Oxford BSAC Scuba Diving Club as they took the plunge in Hinksey Lake, South Oxford, yesterday.

Five divers continued the club’s annual New Year’s Day tradition of hunting for things which have been dumped in the lake.

Finds over the last 60 years include a car, bike and a moped.

Club diving officer Prof Chris Stevens, 46, was one of those who braved the cold for his first dive of 2015.

The Oxford University professor said: “Hinksey Lake is not a very attractive location for diving, it is muddy and shallow but it is a good place for the first dive of the year. Before I joined the club they pulled a car out and there is a pedalo under there as well, but it has not been found. I think we found silver candlesticks there in the past.”

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Wantage resident Nick Burns came along to take part in his first dive at the site.

The 16-year-old’s great-uncle Wilf Cross was a member of the club which had found a bike during the New Year’s Day dive in the 1960s.

Nick said: “It is highly likely to be cold in there, but good to get things out.”

This year’s haul was limited to a rusty pram covered in mussels.

 

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