We have identified the 30 ponds we are going to use for our initial surveys over the summer. We are now liaising with volunteers and landowners to sort out the visits before using the information gathered to produce management plans for some of them.
As part of the project we are looking into the history of the ponds. We have copies of the first ordnance survey maps produced in 1887 and can identify whether our ponds appear on them or not. Many of the ponds were marked as marshland (many ponds don’t appear on modern maps either). We now want to know a little bit more about these ponds.
For example; Pearl Lake near Shobdon. On the 1887 map it is marked as a “New Decoy Pool”, suggesting that it had either been recently dug out or extended to help with capture of wildfowl or ducks. Could you help us find out more? We would love to know if there is any more information or maps of the site, especially about what was there before, did they expand an older kettle hole pond?, when was it created or modified? Anything that can help us expand our knowledge of these sites would be very useful.
If you are interested in helping with this research then please get in touch with Beth Andrews on e.andrews@worc.ac.uk to find out more about the sites we are interested in and what we need to know.
“New Decoy Pool” (now known as Pearl Lake) as shown on the 1887 Ordnance Survey Map below.
