For the last few years the old Education Centre pond had been leaking and we wanted to reline it, but this would have meant there was no pond for pond-dipping. So as part of our update in 2019 we made a new pond, this was so that it could develop sufficiently that we could use it for dipping and set about relining the original pond. A lot has happened since then and not all of it to do with ponds. However last autumn we had an appeal to raise the money to clean out the old pond and reline it. In doing so we found out what the problem was, reed shoots which are very sharp indeed, had pushed their way through the liner making several holes.
After removing all the vegetation to expose the old liner it was pulled out along with the underlay.
Although we were going to use an underlay a generous payer of soft sand is still a good idea, we were fortunate to get a load donated by Tarmac at Blashford, many thanks Tarmac! We also took the opportunity to level up the pond edges.
I confess the pond turned out to be rather larger and deeper than we had thought, initial measurements suggested a 10x10m liner would be enough, at the last minute I decided to play it safe and go for 12x12m and thank goodness I did as we needed just about every bit of it!
We had been saving water so had some to start filling it right away. few days of moderate rain, so progress was pretty good.
It is now looking good, we still need a bit more rain to fill it right up and some growth around the shore to get it looking more natural, but I would say in another year it will be great and in maybe 18 months suitable for pond-dipping again. We have already seen beetles and a newt in it and there were a pair of Mallard on it the other day.
A big THANK YOU to everyone who donated to our appeal and to Tarmac for the sand. Hopefully it will give another few decades of service for thousands more children and adults to discover the wonders of pondlife.
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 