The Mill Pond

Our pond had become a bit silted up and overgrown - a haven for newts, frogs, dragonflies and - the stuff of   alien sci-fi - the larvae of great diving beetles. Flat worms and snails, daphne by the cloud, and any number of amazing little microscopic creatures - water bears, how cool are they!

But the leak has been getting bigger; water has been running out where we'd rather it didn't, and in heavy rainfall had starting appearing through the walls of the mill. Then, after the deep and prolonged frosts of winter, a bit of the bank collapsed - definately time to do something. The pond is fed, pretty constantly, by the run off from a field across the lane, at the end of the leat. The run-off goes onto the lane and council road drains take it down into the leat - it means that the pond always has water in it. Which is great, until you don't want it! The Highways people were quite interested in the problem - we suggested a temporary hose on the end of the pipe from the road would be enough, to take the water over to the river, but of course, there's no money these days.

So - the pond has a plug. All we had to do was get the water out first, in order to get to it, being that any lifting mechanism had long gone. Now, this pond is a bit bigger than your average garden pool and emptying with a bucket is a bit of a non-starter! We very scientifically (?)measured how much was leaking out during heavy rainfall once - you know : how long does it take a bucket to fill, type of thing - and calculated something like 2,000 litres an hour. Lots of water! Fortunately, the pond is high above the mill and the tail-race and, also fortunately, we had some long lengths of flexible hose. Our siphon system proved very effective and emptied enough water out over about 24 hours, when the level became too low for the siphon to work. Approximately 36  hours later the pond was full again! Eventually, we managed to get the empty pond to coincide with time available to deal with the getting out of the plug. Which of course is not like your average plug, but rather large and made of iron. and under a not inconsiderable amount of mud.....it was very exciting to find it, and even more exciting to lift it out! The expected gurgle of water disappearing down the plughole didn't happen though, which was not so satisfying. Giant plunger anyone?? The judicious use of metal bars and the handle of the hoe shoved up (and down) the pipe gradually bored holes through the crud of years and the water started to flow away nicely.

To prevent the drying out of the pond and the loss of our lovely fauna, we constructed a dam of mud and the roots of floating grass. This means we can control how much water goes away, and enough is left to keep the tadpoles happy. And the Dragonflies. And the Damsels.

The next job was to clear the willows and floating grass that were threatening to take over. The fun bit! Sloshing about in the mud and silt with a big rake and saws- what a stink! Three of us, and we all did sitting in the mud at some point! As for the dog......

Now we can see to the end of the pond,.but I've a feeling that we still have a very long way to go......