Stanton Harcourt School pond

The aim was to turn a rather inaccessible pond into a more child friendly one that doesn't need a heavyweight metal frame to stop children falling in. It seemed a fairly simple plan to fill in the shallower end with gravel to create a bog garden and then there is only half the pond with deeper water to cover. Fortunately Rachel and Chris are made of tough stuff as they cleared some of the mud and leaves from the bottom  and then rigged up a 'wall' across the pond to contain the gravel and their hands and feet went numb from the cold. I had the cushy jobs, as usual, taking photos, collecting blocks from a nearby building site etc.

This well rounded frog decided to evacuate the pond once the gravel started piling in but it didn't have to go far to get some shelter and it went back into the pond before we left.
Rachel has been working hard for several weeks to open up the whole of the pond area, cutting back the hedge, removing a gate and a stile and generally clearing up so that the children can enjoy making much more use of this area.

Many thanks to Smith and Sons Bletchington for the free bag of gravel.



So we managed to reduce the area of deep water and just have to hope that we won't have put off the frogs, toads and newts that were found here last year. A few plants to start things off and the pond area is already starting to look much more welcoming.