THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE ― These Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and are progressively growing to be the only record of life around Findon, West Sussex, England.  Everyday stories about real people.   In fact, a potted history of the village.

THE MANOR DEW-POND

Copyright Valerie Martin 2004

Findon is dew-pond country.  I have set myself the mammoth task of documenting as many dew-ponds in the area as I can find.

Over the years the Findon valleys have gradually dried up and have finally contained not even a trickle of water and turned into waterless uplands.  The porous chalk hillsides refused to hold moisture – unless a technique known as puddling was implemented.  Farmers of the past either collected rainwater on the roofs of their buildings, or they sank wells, some up to 300 feet deep, before a water-bearing stratum was reached.

The drying up process over the centuries gave necessity to the invention of the dew-pond from the 17th century onwards. This name was given to the shallow, (usually artificial), circular scooped-out hollow in the ground — normally twenty or thirty yards across. It was maintained largely by precipitation and situated on downland where there was no adequate groundwater supply for livestock to drink. This dew-pond, as it became known survived with assistance from rainwater and the condensation of mists and hill-fogs rolling over the Findon hills.

How many worshippers on their way to services on Sundays realise that there was at one time a "watering hole" on the approach to St. John the Baptist Church?   This was the Manor Pond of yesteryear just to the left of the road on the approach to Findon Place.   It was  frequented by thirsty cattle that waded in the cool water on hot days.

click to enlarge

                                      Katie sniffs out the exact measurements of the long-gone dew-pond in the tangled mess in June 2011.

In recent years it has no longer been an area of interesting wildlife on the scenic route to the church and has been hardly recognisable in the tangled mass of undergrowth. During the spring of 2011 much clearing of the site has been implemented beside Findon Place ..... sawing down of trees and bushes and moving of earth and boundaries I cannot really say that the corner has been improved at all to the scene in 1904 as displayed.

Continue if you would like to read about The Tolmare Dew-pond

This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.