Surrey Homes | SH111 | April 2024 | Garden Supplement inside

Jane Howard gets to the
bottom of why so many
ponds have disappeared
across the High Weald
I
have a new passion, almost
an obsession, it’s about ponds.
And there’s a distinct possibility
I might become a bit of a pond bore,
but honestly the more you discover the
more fascinating they become. And now that
I’m hopefully 'in' with the Newt Partnership
(more of which later) there’s no stopping me.
If you’re interested, the definition of a pond, either man
made or natural is a body of still, fresh water between
1m² and 5 acres (an acre being more or less the size of a
football pitch) which holds water for at least 4 months a
year. And the High Weald has plenty of them. At their
peak in the 1800s there were hundreds of thousands of
local ponds, but more than 75% have been lost since then
leaving around 13,000 mapped ponds in the area, grouped
according to how they were created.
There are of course natural ponds
found in river valleys or fed by springs,
but the majority are the result of past
human activity. Drinking ponds were
dug out for people and livestock usually
within farmyards or villages, and were
often a by product of digging out clay
to make bricks. Then there are hammer
ponds that were created by damming
fast flowing streams to provide a suitable
head of water to power the hammers and
bellows for the forges and furnaces of the
iron industry. The small, deep, irregular
ponds found on field boundaries are
called marl pits, created by the digging
out of the bluey/grey marl clay which
was spread on fields as a soil improver.
I had never really considered any of this until we were
introduced to the Newt Partnership which came to the
farm to investigate if we had any potential sites or ponds
suitable for creation and restoration. It’s quite hard to
become a contender in pond world, with rigorous water
quality, wildlife diversity and DNA sampling tests all to
be passed before you get the thumbs up. Hedges near the
At their peak in the
1800s there were
hundreds of thousands
of local ponds, but
more than 75%
have been lost since
then leaving around
13,000 mapped ponds
in the area, grouped
according to how
they were created
ponds for the newts to travel along coupled with a record
of a good local newt population (to give the pond the best
chance of being found) also come into consideration.
We have about fifteen ponds on the farm and it
seems that a few of these might make the grade and be
considered for restoration or conservation, but what
caused most interest in newt camp were the ghost
ponds. Historical maps of the farm
show where ponds once existed, but in
the 20th century many were filled in
to create more farmland and buildings.
However, like magic many can be
summoned back to life. So the plan is to
dig out these old ponds (even after 100
years the original pond sediment will
contain a seed bank that may include
now rare species) and then stand back
and let nature do its thing. Within
a couple of years they should spring
back to life with all sorts of flora and
fauna including those elusive newts!
But how, I ask, will I know when
they arrive (and I’m not even aspiring
to the giddy heights of a Great Crested,
a Common one or two would do me
fine). Seems they are so protected you are not even
allowed to look for them, but apparently the grass around
the pond will give the game away. Rather endearingly,
female newts carefully lay one egg on the underside of
a leaf and then bend it over and glue it down, so if you
see lots of folded blades on your pond margins you have
newts. Can you imagine how exciting that might be!
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