THIS IS FINDON
VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com
created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West
Sussex, U.K.
CONTROVERSY OVER TOLMARE
DEW-POND IN 2003/5
Copyright Valerie Martin
2003.
I might as well begin by recording for posterity
how the alarm was raised in the village in the autumn of 2003 about that most
controversial radio mast planted in the Tolmare dew-pond. It seems
that no one took much notice until someone read on my News and Views my comment
after I had seen the mast being erected. I pointed
out that it was on the site of a dew-pond. From then on the word
went round like wildfire.
I know that mobile phones are a part of our life
but the growing network of them springing up are a blemish on the countryside
which is supposed to be an area of outstanding natural beauty... and to have a
mast erected in the centre of an ancient dew-pond site is unbelievable.
The
news was broken to the Findon Parish Council at their next meeting and the
Vice-Chairman, Len Prior, immediately contacted our District Councillor, Stephen
Brookman. The West Sussex County Council became involved and also
English Heritage.
It is rather ironical that the dew-pond had
remained derelict and forgotten in the undergrowth amidst piles of rubbish for
years and no one had worried. I guess that only a small percentage of the
population knew it had once existed. As soon as I mentioned the word
"dew-pond" when the mast appeared, everyone was up in arms.
The Arun District Council eventually received a
planning application on 8th September 2003 from Airwave MMO2 Limited of
Wellington Street, Slough, Berkshire for a temporary 15 metre telecommunications
installation at the entrance drive to Tolmare Farm.
I wrote to the Arun District Council and
received this reply.....
|
17th September 2003.
Dear
Ms Martin,
Thank you for your e-mail forwarded to me regarding the mast recently
put up at Tolmare Farm.
It has been erected without the necessary planning permission and
although a retrospective application is been considered by the Council
under reference FN/68/03, a report recommending the issue of an
enforcement notice requiring its removal is in the process of
preparation.
You will be notified of future progress in this case.
Juan Baeza
Juan Baeza, Enforcement Team Leader, Arun District Council.
|
That was the last I was to hear from Juan Baeza —
no future communication.
Derek Dainton had something to add on the subject....
12th September 2003.
Valerie
Those objecting to the Radio Mast were pretty quiet when
the same site overflowed with rubbish as a result of fly tipping!
Derek Dainton
Derek Dainton, Nepcote, Findon, West
Sussex.
|
I then spied this on the Letters Page in the West
Sussex Gazette dated Thursday 25th September 2003....
|
Tolmere pond has been dry since 1962
While I agree with the objection to the
illegal erection of the mast at Tolmere Pond or anywhere else for that
matter, I would like to know when was the last time that the Findon Parish
Council vice-chairman, Leonard Prior, actually visited Tolmere Pond.
Having lived, worked and played sport in
the area since 1954, the last time I can remember dew in that pond must
have been about 1962; since then it has been a tip for anybody or
anything. As a young lad I can remember catching newts etc with a
village lad called Keith Groves.
So why the statement from Mr. Prior
"effectively destroying it" when it was already destroyed — a case of
shutting the stable door when the horse has bolted.
Barry T. Butterfield, New Barn Lane,
Pulborough, West Sussex.
|
I say "Tolmare", Barry says "Tolmere".
|
25th September 2003.
I notice Barry Butterfield says it TolmEre
as do most people, I know the
spelling is TolmAre on the farmgate, but to
most Findon folk it is TolmEre.
Why???
 John Stepney, North
End, Findon, West Sussex.
|
Does anyone know the answer.... or is it that someone just made
a spelling mistake over the years?
In the days of the Findon farmer, Horace Hale, the farm was
known as Tormare when he rented the land from Colonel William George
Margesson. Horace was told by the Colonel that the name "Tormare"
indicated it was a hill by the sea.
So it appears we now have three different spellings....
Tormare, Tolmare and Tolmere. Which is correct?
I wonder if anyone will come forward with a plan
to restore the dew-pond after all the dust has settled? What a good
idea!
It is strange to think of Thomas Hardy walking the byways of Findon with his young
lady, Eliza Nicholls of The Running Horse (now Nepcote House) on the edge of
Nepcote Green. One particular sonnet is reputed to relate to Tolmare dew-pond
on the ridge overlooking Tolmare Farm and their
love is immortalised in this poem...
We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.
Tolmare dew-pond would have been a delightful spot in Victorian days, brimming with
the rippling water
and wildlife.
Lawrie May, now living in Antigua, wrote to me and said that when he was a boy, on
summer evenings he used to collect newts from the Tolmare dew-pond to take
home in a jar. He says the pond was teeming with insects and the
air was full of huge dragonflies in those days.
One time resident of the cottages at Rogers
Farm, John Pelling, confirms that it was lovely years ago at Tolmare dew-pond
when he was a youngster and it was the habitat of Great Crested Newts in
the water. It was to become a shadow of
its former self, dried up and a tangled mess, surrounded by old lime-kilns hidden in the
debris and undergrowth.
Another piece of history was made in
September 2003 when the name of Tolmare hit the news again...
26th September 2003.
Dear Valerie I would just like to mention that as you
probably know we shall be opening the Bed & Breakfast accommodation at
Marigold Cottage within the next three weeks.
The four rooms will be named
TOLMARE, Nepcote
, Cissbury and
Chancton (short for Chanctonbury because it would not fit on the
name plaque).
TOLMARE was Red, Nepcote was Yellow, Cissbury was Green
and Chanctonbury was Blue (I was in Chanctonbury).
I chose these names after the house names that used to
exist when I used to attend Findon School all too many years ago.
Charlie
Charles Costello,
Findon Village, West Sussex.
|
Time marched on and this letter appeared on the Letters to the
Editor page of the West Sussex Gazette dated 2nd October 2003....
|
SITING OF MAST HAS RUINED THE VIEW
I refer to the erection by a phone
company of a mast at the approach to the South Downs footpath at
Tolmare Farm adjacent to the Long Furlong, A280, at Church Hill,
Findon.
The positioning of this mast has
reduced a hitherto area of outstanding natural beauty to an eyesore.
Untold visual damage has been done to a
wide area of the Downs which should be protected from these types of
incursions, especially if the need is not of national or regional
importance.
The mast is central to a valley once
locally referred to a "Little Switzerland" on account of its rolling
landscape.
The harsh lines of this edifice can now
be seen from Blackpatch Hill, Church Hill, the south side of
Chanctonbury Ring, the east side of Cissbury Ring, and part of the
Southdown Way.
As a resident of West Sussex, I seek
its removal forthwith and for the offending company to be charged the
costs of restoring the area to its formal natural surroundings,
including restoration of the dew-pond upon which it is allegedly
built.
Furthermore, I call upon your
administration to publish in detail the evidence of need submitted by
the company for erecting a mast without planning permission.
If, as has been indicated in the press,
they are to rely upon a dispensation due to urgency, then I seek to
have it explained how the case fits with the term "urgency" as defined
by the department responsible for the relevant legislation.
W. J. Fox, High Salvington, West
Sussex.
|
I have not hitherto heard of the entrance to Tolmare Farm
described as "Little Switzerland". Although I have heard it
referred to as a rubbish tip.
At this point, I thought it would be marvellous if the phone company were,
in fact, to restore the
dew-pond, but as it has been overgrown with debris many years, I doubt whether
this will happen. We can but dream.
Following this, everything went ominously quiet on the subject
of the offending mast at Tolmare.
At the end of September 2004,
I heard that the unauthorised Tetra mast erected illegally without Planning
Permission at the entrance to Tolmare Farm on the Long Furlong road A280 must be
removed within fourteen weeks.
| 9th January
2005.
Mast at Tolmare Farm.
We noticed that the mast at Tolmare Farm had been
removed when we were out walking that way last Wednesday morning.
How long has this been gone?
Bob & Joan Blackwell
Bob and Joan Blackwell, Findon Village,
West Sussex.
|
No idea when the mast disappeared, Joan...... I
only noticed today when it was pointed out to me that it had gone. It took a
while didn't it! Ah well, that bit of excitement is over.
One cannot expect to please all of the people all
of the time. The controversial Tetra mast may now have gone from the entrance to
Tolmare Farm on the Long Furlong Road, A280, but has obviously left an eyesore
behind. Actually, it is no worse than it was BEFORE the erection of
the Tetra mast, it is just that everyone is taking notice now and it is being
referred to as a "former beauty spot".
Nothing was less likely! It has been
a dumping ground... a fly-tipping site for years.... and I have lived here for
eleven years.
I gather from Norman Allcorn that a hole was
even made in the dew-pond (by the farmer prior to the 1960s) to drain any
remaining water. He suspects that the dew-pond itself was ruined during
the Second World War with army movement in the area. Norman tells me that
in the 1960s when he first came to live in Findon the actual Tolmare dew-pond
was void of water but nevertheless it was a lovely grassy area and the farm
manager would certainly have got upset if any rubbish had been deposited at the
entrance to the farm.
Campaigners are now urging the Arun District
Council to push for the original dew-pond to be re-instated and for all the
rubbish on the site to be removed. What a wonderful idea.
Last year I understand that an
East Sussex dew-pond (believed to have been used as a source of water for sheep
and cattle for the last two centuries), was restored by the Sussex Downs
Conservation Board. This particular dew-pond is situated near
South Farm at Rodmell, located high on the Downs, next to the remains of a
traditional flint sheepfold.
A post and rail fencing has now
been erected around this dew-pond to protect it from permanent fouling by
grazing animals but a removable section will allow animals in to temporarily
graze the undergrowth around the pond edges. A stile allows the
public access to the pond.
|
As a last reminder for you .... the above photograph
shows how the area looked in the 1920s.
|
Does anyone think the Sussex
Downs Conservation Board would be interested in the restoration of the Tolmare
dew-pond? I think I am right in saying that they have a database on
dew-ponds..... lost and otherwise. Worth investigating perhaps?
| 6th February
Hi Valerie,
Dew-ponds
The work of the "Southdowns Conservation board to restore the dewpond at
Rodmell near a sheepfold is commendable.
I think they should take a look at the Tolmare site
along with the adjacent lime kiln which is also worth preserving as so few
remain today.
The whole area could be neatly fenced off for safety and perhaps explaining a little of the history
.....newts and other wild life would
then return as at Chanctonbury, at the moment it is a blot on the
landscape.
Of cause all this would depend on the willingness and
cooperation of the landowner who may have other thoughts on the subject.
From John Pelling Nr Worthing sx
|
Continue to read about
More Controversy at the
Dew-pond.
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Findon Village —
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a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for
documenting life in Findon.
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