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Nick Baimbridge from Blenheim in the Queen Pool, it is now so shallow you can almost walk across it.

A £12million pound plan has been launched to save 'Englands finest view' after a report revealed the lake at Blenheim is so badly silted that it could disappear completely.

Blenheim Palace is embarking on a huge restoration of its lakes which will see a fleet of diggers dredge 400,000 tonnes of silt - enough to fill Wembley Stadium to its roof.

The radical work is urgently needed as the two lakes have become so shallow - just 12 inches in many places - that they are at risk of drying out completely.

If that happened the stability of the iconic 307-year-old Vanbrugh Bridge would be threatened and with it the landscape created 240-years-ago by legendary gardener Capability Brown.

Blenheim in Oxfordshire is the birthplace of Winston Churchill and the vista was described as 'the finest view in England' by his father.