Deep Pit Pond

click Kiln Lane for research by Dennis Claydon

Deep Pit Pond. Taken from "Tarmac and Beyond by Dennis Claydon

In hilltop settlements of the Chilterns, a long-standing problem for many generations was the supply of water for cattle and domestic purposes. In long dry summers areas were prone to periods of severe drought. If a community lacked a Parish Well, the only means of supply was water collected from cottage rooftops, stored in underground tanks, or from ponds. A shortage of water at Stokenchurch in the late 1860’s, during a period of drought, caused beer to be cheaper than water!

The Enclosure, maybe recognising the problems, made provision for nine Public Ponds within the Parish, (then the Parish of Princes Risborough). One of these was in Longwick, whilst the other eight, perhaps predictably, were in Lacey Green. Loosley Row was fortunate in that it possessed a Parish Well, whilst Speen, on the other hand, seemed to manage without either, possibly being able to survive by using private ponds.

Two of these public ponds are situated in Kiln Lane. The smaller of the two lies at the western end of Kiln Lane and is known as Whitewashing Pond. It is described in the Enclosure Award as a ‘public pond or watering place... in an allotment of the said John Grubb containing eighteen perches with a road thereto of the breadth of twenty feet from the Lacey Green Road, including the Public Bridleway No. 1’.

For the smaller pond click Whitewashing Pond

The second pond is situate a few metres to the north-east of Whitewashing is known as Deep Pit Pond. It bears a similar description in the Enclosure Award as Whitewashing, being in the “same Allotment near the Brick Kiln...containing twenty four perches’.

The fact that these ponds had a road leading to them ‘of the breath of twenty feet’ undoubtedly has some bearing on the situation today. Kiln Lane is tarmacadamed as far as Deep Pit Pond, thereafter it is unmade and ‘unadopted’. Residents of the late nineteenth century recall a gate near Deep Pit, for which a toll was payable for passage through, thence leading into ‘Public Bridleway No 1’, as recorded by the Enclosure Award.

Brick making activities are traditionally said to have been the cause of the creation of Deep Pit. Whilst this theory is a very likely explanation, it is impossible to prove. Known as a ‘keeching pond’, Deep Pit was reserved for domestic purposes. The water was periodically limed to keep it pure. A small gangplank was erected over the surface, allowing residents to walk out and cast their buckets into the deep. To the two large families resident in the adjacent timber cottages, (now ‘Kiln Barn’) together with other villagers, this was their only source of water supply. Generations of children have been told this pond is very deep and could be exceptional dangerous if one was unfortunate enough to fall in. Despite this, it was not until the 1930’s that it was deemed necessary to erect railings along the roadside edge.

The supply of water to this pond came solely from rainfall and surface water. By a series of roadside ditches, water was drawn from as far afield as Main Road. Around the turn of the twentieth century the volume of water entering the pond caused it to break its banks and flood the dip in the road alongside. This was a source of joy to the boys of the village, who found great amusement in negotiating the flood with the aid of stilts. Modern road drainage has severely curtailed the former supply of water. Today only surface water and rainfall from the immediate area drains into the pond. It would appear most unlikely that flooding will ever again be a cause for concern. However, a considerable rise in the normal water level has been noted, due to the very heavy and prolonged periods of rain during 2000 and 2001.

About the same time as the flooding early in the twentieth century, a major crisis occurred. The Owner of ‘Gracefield’, in Main Road, purchased a car, one of the first in the village, which was garaged in the Coach House at Idle Corner. Oil, leaking from this vehicle, found its way into roadside ditches, eventually draining from Idle Corner into Deep Pit Pond, causing severe contamination.

During the summer of 1921 there was a severe drought, water being in very short supply in Lacey Green. Whitewashing Pond was dry and in order to provide water for cattle therefore, a series of journeys, organised on a full-time daily basis, were made with a horse drawn water cart, to a source of supply in Saunderton.

Deep Pit, too, although not dry, was very low. A seventeen-year-old youth in 1921 reported entering the pond, descending down to the waters edge. A small amount of water remained in the bottom of the pond. From this position, some indication of the depth of the pond could be gauged. Looking upwards, the roofline apex of the nearby timbered cottages was just visible. Over seventy years later, during conservation work in the 1990’s, a depth was recorded of ‘under four feet’. This would suggest a certain amount of silting up has taken place during the intervening years.

In the 1920’s it was not uncommon to find moorhens and ducks on this pond. No doubt the wild ducks found some attraction in the domestic ducks, which also frequented the water, from their home in the garden opposite the pond. Then, for some inexplicit reason, over a long period of time, these birds seem to have forsaken this pond. Since the late 1990’s, however, a return of moorhens and wild ducks has been witnessed, some of which have been successful in raising their broods. The pond has seen the annual migration of frogs, being the source, over several generations, for small boys to catch tadpoles and newts. It has also provided a place of wayside refreshment for badgers and foxes on their nightly wanderings.

With the coming of mains water to the village in 1934 the usefulness of this commodity became redundant. Now under the care of Lacey Green Parish Council, Deep Pit is registered as a Parish Pond, one of only four remaining in the Parish. If they so wish, parishioners may still exercise the right to draw water from this pond!

-

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.