A PAIR of intrepid divers are on a mission to rid the region’s lakes of rubbish.

Angus Hosking, 21, and Declan Turner, 19, have removed a fascinating assortment of detritus from the beds of lakes such as Windermere and Derwentwater, including purses, sunglasses and a boat.

Mr Hosking, of Kendal, said: “As soon as you get down there - apart from in Ullswater yesterday - there is just rubbish everywhere; it’s just a lake-bed of rubbish.

“I have currently got a collection of Coke and Pepsi cola bottles roughly from the 1940s and 50s, touching into the 30s as well.”

The pair, who work together at the Low Wood Bay hotel’s watersports centre situated between Troutbeck and Ambleside, are currently going out diving once or twice a week.

They have also taken their exploits one step further by voluntarily offering up their services to help retrieve people’s lost treasures from the murky depths.

Items recovered by them so far include a ring, earphones, mobile phones and a kick scooter.

Mr Hosking and Mr Turner have been taking these plunges for more than two years but in 2019 began doing it under the banner of ‘Lake District Diving’ - setting up a Facebook page to make them easy for people to find.

Mr Turner, of Ambleside, said they thoroughly enjoyed the work they did.

“Diving to me is very personal because it helps me,” he said.

“Some people have an escape, and it is my escape.

“It relaxes me - just the feeling of weightlessness, of being in a different world.”

Mr Hosking said: “In terms of being under the water - it’s incredible, perfectly silent, really, really relaxing.”

The pair added the litter they found in the lakes was ‘a mixture of accidental and purposeful’.

“But when you find a lamp that’s just thrown in the middle of a lake, that’s a little bit different,” said Mr Hosking.

“Or the broken glass that’s everywhere. Broken pint glasses, broken pint bottles.”

Mr Hosking said they did not even have gloves to protect against cuts when they first started their dives, but a pair was eventually donated to them by a member of the public.

The work they do is voluntary but they accept donations for equipment. Visit ‘Lake District Diving’ on Facebook for more.