This is what divers found at bottom of old American Adventure theme park lake

Divers prepare to take the plunge at the former American Adventure site.

Underwater Hunters were given the green light to access to the old American Adventure lake and spent four hours exploring the bottom of the water.

The lake is the last remaining feature of the popular attraction, which closed in 2007.

Developers have now removed the old rides, including the foundations of the old roller coaster, with homes expected to be built on the Shipley site from 2020.

A remote control boat was among the finds.

The group, from Long Eaton, said they received hundreds of messages from theme park enthusiasts hoping they might locate parts of their favourite rides.

Warren Palmer, his wife Michelle and step son Anthony Hanstock have now revealed what they found lurking at the bottom of the water.

Mr Palmer, 44, said: "We found a cowboy hat that still had glitter on it, one of the remote control boats and a gold mine sieve.

"We also found some stuff which should not have been there.

"We found a lawn mower, office chairs, handbags, lots of bottles, rolled up carpets, an X-amount of shorts and around three or four bikinis.

"There is a lot of stuff down there and a lot of rubbish and it's a really thriving lake. There is lots of wildlife and the rubbish ruins it.

"People do not understand, it's another world down there and we're destroying it.

"We went about two metres down and we could see three metres in front of us."

The group plan to hold regular clean ups at other lakes in the area, including Erewash canal in Long Eaton.

The father-of-six continued: "We're doing it for the environment.

"We only just started this around three months ago. We thought people would be interested in the rubbish at the bottom of the lake, so we carried on from there."

Planning permission to build 307 homes, education facilities, a retail park and other amenities at the site has previously been granted.

The scheme previously faced strong opposition with a petition of more than 10,000 signatures calling for the park to be reopened.

Derbyshire County Council bosses though have already said that reopening the site would be financially unviable and very 'unlikely'