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Encyclopedia > Dew pond
Typical example of downland dew pond near Chanctonbury Ring, West Sussex.50°53′47″N 0°23′23″W / 50.896293, -0.389756
Typical example of downland dew pond near Chanctonbury Ring, West Sussex.
50°53′47″N 0°23′23″W / 50.896293, -0.389756
Dew pond on hill above West Leake Nottinghamshire. 52°50′11″N 1°12′58″W / 52.836462, -1.215963
Dew pond on hill above West Leake Nottinghamshire.
52°50′11″N 1°12′58″W / 52.836462, -1.215963

A Dew pond is an artificial pond usually sited on the top of a hill, intended for watering livestock. Dew ponds are used in areas where a natural supply of surface water may not be readily available. Chanctonbury Ring is a ring of trees atop Chanctonbury Hill on the South Downs, West Sussex, England. ... West Leake is a small village and civil parish (with a population of around 100) in the Rushcliffe district of Nottinghamshire. ... Two people reflected in a fish pond A pond is typically a man made body of water smaller than a lake. ...


They are usually shallow, saucer-shaped and lined with puddled clay or marl on an insulating straw layer over a bottom layer of chalk or lime.[1] To deter earthworms from their natural tendency of burrowing upwards, which in a short while would make the clay lining porous, a layer of soot would be incorporated.[2] The clay is usually covered by a final layer of chalk rubble or broken stone to protect the lining from the hoofs of cattle. In building and maintaining canals or reservoirs, puddling is lining the channel with waterproof clay. ... For other uses, see Clay (disambiguation). ... Marls are calcium carbonate or lime rich muds or mudstones which contain variable amounts of clays and calcite or aragonite. ...


Despite the name, their primary source of water is believed to be rainfall rather than dew or mist.[3]

Contents

History

The technique for building dew ponds has been understood from the earliest times (as Kipling tells us in Puck of Pook's Hill). The two Chanctonbury Hill dew ponds have been dated, from flint tools excavated nearby and similarity to other, dated earthworks, to the neolithic period and landscape archaeology shows that they were used by the inhabitants of the nearby hill fort (probably from an earlier date than that of the surviving late bronze age structure) for watering cattle.[4][5] This article is about the British author. ... Puck of Pooks Hill is a book published in 1906 by Rudyard Kipling[1], containing a series of short stories set in different periods of history. ... Chanctonbury Ring is a ring of trees atop Chanctonbury Hill on the South Downs, West Sussex, England. ... Flint tools were made by stone age peoples worldwide. ... An array of Neolithic artifacts, including bracelets, axe heads, chisels, and polishing tools. ... Landscape archaeology refers to a body of method and theory for the study of past people and their material culture within the context of their interactions in the wider social and natural environment they inhabited. ... A hill fort is a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for military advantage. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ...


A land deed dated 825 CE mentions Oxenmere at Milk Hill, Wiltshire, showing that dew ponds were in use during the Saxon period.[6] In the eighteenth century the naturalist Gilbert White noted that during extended periods of summer drought the dew ponds on the downs above his native Selborne, Hampshire, retained their water, despite supplying flocks of sheep, while larger ponds in the valley below had dried up. Later observations demonstrated that during a night of favourable dew formation a typical increase in water level of some two or three inches was possible. However, experiments conducted in 1885 to determine the origin of the water found that dew forms not from dampness in the air but from moisture in the ground directly beneath the site of the condensation: dew, therefore, was ruled out as as source of replenishment.[2] Other scientists have pointed out that the 1885 experiments failed to take into account the insulating effect of the straw and the cooling effect of the damp clay: the combined effect would be to keep the pond at a lower temperature than the surrounding earth and thus able to condense a disproportionate share of moisture.[4] An English deed written on fine parchment or vellum with seal tag dated 1638. ... BCE redirects here. ... Milk Hill, located near Alton Priors is the highest peak in the county of Wiltshire, England and also the highest peak along a 32 mile ridge extending all the way from the South Downs, across the southern Chilterns and into Wiltshire. ... For other uses, see Anglo-Saxon. ... Gilbert White (July 18, 1720 – June 26, 1793) was a pioneering naturalist and ornithologist. ... A downland is an area of open chalk upland. ... Selborne is a village in Hampshire, England, about 50 miles from London, with a population of about 650. ...


Dew ponds are still common on the downlands of southern England, the North Derbyshire and Staffordshire moorlands and in Nottinghamshire. For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. ... Staffordshire Moorlands is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. ... Nottinghamshire (abbreviated Notts) is an English county in the East Midlands, which borders South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire. ...


External links

References

  1. ^ Brooks, Alan; Agate, Elizabeth (1976). Waterways and Wetlands. Doncaster: British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. ISBN 0946752303. 
  2. ^ a b Johnson, Walter (1908). Folk Memory Or the Continuity of British Archaeology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 
  3. ^ Mayhew, Susan (2004). A Dictionary of Geography: Dew Pond. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198606737. 
  4. ^ a b Hubbard, Arthur John; Hubbard, George (1905). Neolithic Dew Ponds and Cattleways. London: Longman, Green. 
  5. ^ Chanctonbury Ring. Prehistory. Steyning Museum (2005). Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
  6. ^ Dew ponds. Wiltshire Community History. Wiltshire County Council. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.

The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers or BTCV is the biggest practical conservation charity in Britain. ... Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ... Longman is a firm of English publishers. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 104th day of the year (105th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 104th day of the year (105th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Bibliography

Pugsley, Alfred John Dewponds in Fable and Fact, A Collection and Criticism of Exciting Knowledge on these Curiosities Publisher/Date Country Life, 1939


Martin, Edward Alfred Dew-Ponds: History, Observation and Experiment Publisher/Date T. Werner Laurie, (1915)


Becket, Arthur The Spirit of the Downs Publisher/Date Methuen, 1909 to 8th edition 1949


Allcroft, A. Hadrian Earthwork of England Publisher/Date Macmillan, 1908


Allcroft, A. Hadrian Downland Pathways Publisher/Date Methuen, 1924


Wills,Barclay The Downland Shepherds Publisher/Date Alan Sutton, 1989


  Results from FactBites:
 
Dewponds - Dew Ponds - Martin - School Nature Study Union (3132 words)
The subject of the dew pond is one of perennial interest, and questions as to how it works and where it is to be found, and what is its secret, are frequently asked.
The ponds to which the name has been applied are found as a rule on high chalk country, and hence they have been closely connected with the chalk downs which extend from Beachy Head to the west of Sussex.
Thus those ponds that had been in existence for the longest time would have the most chlorine, and this was fully borne out by the analyses of three pond-waters which have never been known to fail.
  More results at FactBites »

 

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