East Blatchington Pond News

The East Blatchington Pond Society was not able to publish and distribute its annual Newsletter last year, due to the pandemic. This is our normal method of keeping residents up to date and also fundraising for Pond maintenance. We will be producing a Newsletter this summer, we hope, but here is a short update in the interim.

During the lockdowns, both last year and this year East Blatchington Pond has been a well-used and much appreciated open space. The Pond volunteers who work around the pond are part of the East Blatchington Pond Conservation Society, who as most readers will know, rescued the Pond back in 1980. Although the current Pond may look natural is it artificially re-created and lined – even the duck island with its willows is man-made.

The Pond does require regular looking after and the volunteers have been working all year, every Saturday between 10am and 12 noon, in most weathers. Seaford Council’s contractors do basic maintenance like mowing the grass and tree felling – they recently had to remove a dangerous tree behind the Pond’s tool shed. Tasks like clearing silt out of the traps which collect runoff water from the roads, and the Pond itself, and planting and strimming the banks, are done by the volunteers. A number of local people have commented on the recent pollarding of the trees on the island, which was necessary as they had become too big and one had fallen into the water. They should regrow quite rapidly. The bullrushes and reeds are also managed to stop them taking over the Pond too much,

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30 years exp. All professional products used. 07832 297488 sharonp@hotmail.co.uk and the banks are kept trimmed so that wildflowers can grow, as well as the daffodils and other bulbs that have been planted over many years. The spring flower display is very colourful, and enjoyed by many visitors. The volunteers’ work is directed by Cedric Trenfield, our Pond Manager of many years, who now has two deputies on site. Cedric received an award for his work last year. Any volunteer is happy to answer or redirect questions about the work, and if you would like to join us as a volunteer please come down on a Saturday and say hello. We are committed to helping wildlife in and around the Pond and have created woodpiles and habitats for frogs, slow worms and insects. The Pond itself has some resident aliens which are often observed – lots of fish and terrapins who have been ‘released into the wild’! The terrapins certainly aren’t a native species, but cannot be legally removed, and can be seen sunning themselves on fine days. We now have a new website: www.eastblatchingtonpond.org and would love readers to visit it, to improve our Google search rating among other things! There is a lot of information about the Pond’s history, and photos of it now, and in the past. Our former webmaster Mick Barrett is now retiring and the new website has been built with his content. The Pond Society would like to thank him for all his generous work and hosting over the years. It is now possible to pay ‘subs’ or make a donation online via the new website’s donations page. The Society recently had a welcome donation from Pondsyde Court’s residents, and a new bench was generously donated by the Rumble family and is being much appreciated. Jenny Campbell, acting Website and Newsletter Editor

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