Here you will find Information about the
Dewpond
Restoring the Dewpond
Dewponds are traditional hill ponds used for watering sheep before
there was piped water and troughs.
Dew Ponds are downland Oases providing an important habitat for
wildlife
as well as being significant landscape features.
The South Downs are made of porous chalk so, in order to
hold water
a layer of non-porous, impervious clay is 'puddled' into a chalk
depression.
A modern tecnique for restoring Dew Ponds is to put a liner underneath
the clay. The liner holds the water should the clay crack during
hot and dry weather.
Folklore has provided the name Dew Pond (and in some areas - Mist Pond)
for these hill ponds. Although dew and mist do contribute a small
amount
of water, the vast amount comes from rainfall.
They retain water in all but the driest summers because water
evaporation
is much less than annual rainfall.
This Dewpond was restored in 1991 by the friends of Lancing ring in
conjunction
with Adur District Council, West Sussex County County Council, The
Gambles
Group, Blue Circle Cement, M. Langmead, Farmer and Local
Volunteers
The following is the text from an article in the Herald,
Friday October
4th 1991
It's 'claytime' for children at ancient
ring
Story: Michelle Nevell
It was claytime for [these] Lancing schoolchildren as they delved deep
into the past to search for fossils.
About 60 pupils from North Lancing school walked up to nearby Lancing
Ring on Saturday for a ready-made geology lesson.
They spent a few happy hours knee-deep in clay looking for fossils
before the clay was stamped down to make the base for an ancient
dewpond.
The eight and nine-year-old children have been helping The Friends
of Lancing Ring in it's bid to restore the dewpond, which was drained
and
used during World War II as a base for a gun aimed out to sea.
Conservationists are aiming to restore the dewpond as
a natural landscape feature with the help of volunteers, the Adur
Valley
Project and Adur District Council. Livestock Dewponds were originally
built
as a source of water for livestock but they also provide an invaluable
water habitat for wildlife and an oasis on the otherwise dry and chalky
South Downs.
With the general decline of traditional grazing over the past 30 years,
many dewponds, once a common sight on the South Downs, have either been
filled in or lost through neglect.
But conservationists have spent months bringing the
dewpond
back to it's former glory. Turf has been removed and excavation work
carried
out. On Saturday the volunteers stamped down the clay with straw to
form
the vital lining necessary to retain the water.
All the equipment and materials have been loaned and
donated
by local firms and farmers. Work should be completed on the 200 year
old
dewpond by the end of the month, making it one of the largest in
Sussex.
Following the restoration the lining developed a leak and the Dewpond
would not retain water.
In the winter of 1999/2000 the pond was stripped out and relined.
Over the past months, the pond has become a successful feature
of Lancing Ring.
Many birds come to drink and collect mud for nest building, Dragonflies
have begun to breed among the aquatic reeds.
Two other dewponds used to exist nearby, one at Barton's
Farm (TQ 182
063), the other near the bridleway north of McInyres Field (TQ 186
062).
The former can be seen as a depression with a slight mound around it.
The latter is a hollow area among trees at the top of a footpath.
BTCV -
West Sussex
See also Sussex & the Downs : http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/downs
