- Soudley Ponds
Lying close to the village of
Soudley in theForest of Dean , westGloucestershire , Soudley Ponds, also known as Sutton Ponds, comprise four linked man-made ponds lined in succession through the narrow Sutton Valley, and surrounded by stands of tallDouglas Fir .The ponds were formerly believed to have been dug in the 18th century to provide water to the furnaces in the Soudley Valley and at the nearby Camp Mill. In fact these would have been fed from the Soudley Brook, and from the Tilting Mill Pool, now in the grounds of the
Dean Heritage Centre . It has also been erroneously claimed that they were dug long before this as fish ponds by the monks of the nearbyFlaxley Abbey .However, Atkinson’s map of 1847 shows only a stream running through the valley where the ponds now lie, and it is nowadays assumed that were created as fish ponds after the land’s 1836 purchase by mine-owner
William Crawshay . In 1899 the ponds, along with the rest of the Abbotswood Estate, were sold byRobert Crawshay , William’s son, to the Crown, from which point they were leased for fishing to private individuals. It was only in 1906 that the ponds became as they are today, following the work of Arthur Morgan, who had that year acquired the lease of the ponds, and after whom the lowest of the ponds is still locally known as Morgan’s Pool.Now in the care of the
Forestry Commission , and declared anSSSI byNatural England , the ponds are one of the Forest of Dean’s most delightful spots, particularly in Spring and in Autumn, and are still used by the anglers of the Soudley Fishing Consortium for the purpose for which they were made.References
*The Sutton Ponds, A K Pope, Cindeford, 1986.
External links
* [http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=3678045 photos of Soudley Ponds and surrounding area on geograph]
* [http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/Recreation.nsf/LUWebDocsByKey/EnglandGloucestershireNoForestForestOfDeanSoudleyPonds Soudley Ponds on the Forestry Commission Website]
* [http://www.natureonthemap.org.uk/map.aspx Soudley Ponds on the Natural England Website]
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