Pond 8

General Information:

This little semi-circular pond is situated at the top of the hill in the Somerset Wildlife Trust’s Draycott Sleights Reserve at OS grid reference ST48668 51695.

It is essentially a circular pond divided by a wall into two halves and was probably originally built as one entity, but each half now functions as an individual pond in its own right. The wall through the centre of the pond is the boundary of the reserve so only one half of the pond belongs to the Wildlife Trust, the other being on private land. The half on private land has been repaired at some point using concrete which has raised it above the level of the other half and the water level in each is not uniform, the dividing wall acting as a dam.

During the excavation of the silt we discovered the remains of a further wall in the pond which would once have divided it further into quarters, therefore serving at least three fields of livestock and perhaps four, if this wall once stretched across the neighbouring part of the pond.

The cobbled base of this pond differed in quality from all the others we have encountered, being very uneven and ‘rough’ which made the stonework repair laborious and challenging.

The pond before removal of silt
Silt removal
Silt removal
After silt removal. The remains of the dividing wall can be clearly seen
Picking out the old mortar and soil from between the cobbles
The finished pond
The finished pond