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Historic Gardens 2010
BCD Special Report
Pond Plants and
wildlife
Mark Woods
I
n 1999 the Pond Conservation Trust
estimated that there were approximately
400,000 ponds in Britain.
¹
Ponds are
important not only as a unique resource for
biodiversity, an amenity for a wide range
of interests, and a visual focus in many
landscapes, but also because they form a key
part of the culture and history of Britain.
An estimated 98 per cent of the ponds in
lowland Britain are of artificial origin and
were created for a wide range of agricultural,
industrial and ornamental purposes.
Some of Britain’s oldest artificial ponds
are associated with medieval manors and
monasteries, and were created for functional
rather than ornamental reasons. During the
18th century, many of the surviving manor
ponds were modified for aesthetic reasons
and incorporated into the gardens of large
country houses or enlarged into lakes and
surrounded by parklands.
2
Others were
modified for water storage, often to supply
fountains and artificial waterfalls. Some
were stone-lined, stocked with ornamental
plants and sometimes fish, and regularly
cleared of silt and debris. As a consequence,
they are usually of limited value for nature
conservation, although they remain of
enormous cultural and historic significance.
However, many former manor and monastic
ponds were located in less formal areas of
estate gardens such as ornamental woodlands
and grazed lawns. It is these ponds that
have often developed a significant nature
conservation interest because of their age,
continuity of low-intensity management
and lack of agro-chemical inputs.
In the late Victorian and Edwardian
periods, ponds and pools were created for
many different ornamental and leisure
purposes in public parks and private gardens.
The variety is almost endless, from rambling
picturesque boating ponds and shallow skating
ponds in public parks, to small duck ponds
on village greens, and from the stiff canal-
like pools popularised by Gertrude Jekyl,
to romantic Japanese water gardens. In each
case, complex ecosystems may have to be
taken into account whenever conservation
and repair work is being considered.
Lost ponds
While the cultural significance of ponds in
historic parks and gardens is often obvious,
their ecological value has only recently been
fully appreciated. One reason for this is that,
when compared with larger water-bodies or
rivers, ponds in the countryside are relatively
ephemeral features, and without intervention
they silt up, often disappearing in less than a
century. Agricultural ‘improvements’ and, to a
lesser extent, urban development in the wider
countryside have also led to significant losses
in the past century
¹
(perhaps as high as 75 per
cent) and a general decline in biodiversity.
However, the loss of ponds in historic
landscapes has been much less severe because
of protection and sympathetic management.
National pond surveys carried out in
1996
3
and targeted research have highlighted
the importance of ponds for biodiversity. For
example, Wright et al (1996)
4
demonstrated
that invertebrate diversity and abundance
were greater in ponds than in rivers. As a
result, ponds are now included in the updated
list of the UK government’s Biodiversity
A typical stone-lined 19th-century ornamental garden pool: regular silt clearance for the fish limits the diversity of species that the pond can support.