Great Gidding

Creating a new pond

After mulling over the idea of how to bring another environmental benefit to the Jubilee Wood
it was fairly obvious that a new pond was called for. The site was quickly identified within
the wood, the wettest part ! So on a hot September day our local digger operator, Jeff turned
up with his JCB and was told to create an interesting shaped pond.

Nothing startling was unearthed as the dig commenced only the usual Hanslope series top soil
overlying the standard chalky boulder clay below.

In an average year when you dig in this clay the soil will stick inside the bucket. Not this time
round, its as dry as it could be.

The final shape of the pond follows best advice in that you need a deep area sloping sides and
a gradual slope to a shallow area.

The excavated clay soil was shaped into a stockpile and then covered with top soil and was
immediately sown with grass seed.

The job done, now we awaited the rain and we’re still waiting 6 months hence.

Taking a lead from our other recently cleaned out ponds we added stones to create a firm base.

Five months on and the 2011/12 drought is borne out by the low winter rainfall and the struggle to naturally fill the pond.

Remarkably over the weekend of the 28th and 29th of April 2012 a deluge of 30mm of rain topped the pond up to the shelf on the subsoil level. It may fill even more as the wood is fairly well flooded.