Deep Pit Pond

click Kiln Lane for research by Dennis Claydon published in "Tarmac and Beyond"

This aptly named pond is still to be found down Kiln Lane.   This was kept for human use.   Lime was put in it to keep it pure.

Hallmark October 2020. Kiln Lane Pond. report by Mike Piercy. (click Mike and Candy Piercy for more about Mike)

The Parish Council owns and looks after 4 ponds in the village. “Deep Pit Pond” in Kiln Lane is probably the largest and deepest. It was probably created in the 17th Century when the brick kiln was operational and the clay was dug out to make bricks.

The pond had a major overhaul about a dozen years ago when a work group from the Chiltern Society stripped out all the vegetation around the pond and cut back some neighbouring trees. This greatly reduced the algae on the surface but took away all the shelter for wildlife.

Since then the pond has been dormant. The drains that used to feed the road’s surface water into the pond have become blocked up and the water level is low. The pond is about 4 foot deep at its edge, but John Tyler recently surveyed it from his coracle and reported that the centre is still deeper than his measuring pole.

In the past couple of years there has been an invasion of sweet reed and this had swiftly covered 90% of the surface area. At the beginning of 2020 the Parish Council got a grant from WDC to do some maintenance on the pond.

So this autumn, after the ducks and moorhens had finished breeding, some Kiln Lane residents started work to pull out and remove the sweet reed.

Over 3 weekends the working party managed to remove over half the reed, nobly supported by Horts. Soc. members and Sarah Halliday, who came and took away all the vegetation for compost. So, they are all hoping for magnificent vegetables in years to come!

We will be having a final attack on the reeds in November, if you'd like to help drop me a line. Also, if any of you have expertise in managing large ponds and can recommend how to improve the oxygen levels of the water with specialist planting then we’d love to hear from you.