An effort to link Far Sawrey with a high speed broadband network has seen BT instal a 1km long under the surface of Windermere.

The operation to lay the cable across the lake took a team of 14 people, including a six-person diving team, a week to complete.

The operation means that 119 premises in Far Sawrey, near Hawkshead, can connect to the superfast broadband network.

Glenn Lipsham, a senior BT marine and terrestrial operations manager, led the operation.

He said that being able to go across the lake had potentially saved months of costly and disruptive engineering work.

He added: "To go around the lake would have involved installing terrestrial cabling over a distance of at least 15km.

“It would have taken weeks to install at the very least, just to do the cabling and jointing alone.

“If we’d had to do work like putting in new cable ducts and jointing chambers then it would easily have taken months to complete.

"You have to factor in not only the time it would have taken to build new ducts and lay cables, but also the cost and the potential disruption.

“The roads are mainly narrow or single track lanes – which means if you can’t build in the verge you have to close roads.”

Mike Blackburn, BT North West regional director, said: "Bringing fibre to rural areas like Cumbria involves major challenges and getting fibre across England’s largest natural lake is a prime example of our determination to make fibre broadband as widely available as possible.”