Ponds - Ponds - Past and Present

For centuries, ponds were an essential part of people’s lives and nearly every village and farm in Britain had a pond. The water was used by both humans and animals but as technology advanced and water became available at the turn of a tap, many ponds were neglected. Since most ponds were man-made, when abandoned by humans they were taken over by nature; plants at the edges took over where there were no farm animals to trample them down and some ponds ended up as marshy bogs. Fallen leaves choked ponds and the oxygen vital for pond-life, was used up as they decayed. Other ponds have been destroyed by pollution or drained and filled in to make way for buildings and farmlands.

All these problems have meant that most of Britain’s original ponds have disappeared – 50 years ago there were twice as many ponds as there are today. Ponds of our countryside are an endangered habitat.