LILY POND

The Lily pond in one form or other has existed for over 500 years. It probably started life as the southern end of a moat which surrounded the earlier Dagnams which was demolished in about 1660 at that point it seems the defensive moat was mostly filled in retaining the southern end as an ornamental pond. When Richard Neave pulled down the 1660 house in the 1760's the new mansion also retained the pond within its gardens. Humphry Repton worked on it in the early 1800s but apart from those minor alterations and of course changes in the surrounding vegetation, the pond is much as it was. The pond is closely bordered in places by alders, oaks, hawthorns, a single holm oak in poor condition and a fine Bay Laurel. At one time several huge English Elms towered over the pond but old age and dutch elm disease completed their demise in the 1970s.

The aquatics include flowering rush, yellow flag and of course the lilies, both yellow and white but the yellows dominate. The pond is currently managed and fished by the Brookside Angling Club.

Below photo taken from the north west in 2003.