Water you wading for?

The lowly duck pond–once the linchpin of village life–powered industry, weeded out witches and was an essential water source. Now, it’s an increasingly rare and cherished habitat, says Vicky Liddell

‘The ducks grow wildAnd from the muddy pond fly up and wheelA circle round the village and soon, tiredPlunge in the pond again’John Clare, from ‘Signs of Winter’ (1820) DUCK ponds, together with village greens, pubs, churches and red telephone boxes, are one of the quintessential elements of the picture-postcard English village. Visited by generations of children and waterfowl, their mirrored calm belies a noisy past when they were an indispensable part of daily life. Typically situated near the centre of a village, ponds are usually found on common land where they were a watering hole for cattle grazing on the green, as well as the itinerant drovers on the way to market. During the Middle Ages, some village ponds were used for pisciculture and nearly all would have seen…

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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 12, 2025

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