Big ponds

Fleet Pond, Hampshire.

Not exactly garden ponds, but I was intrigued by the big pond idea so looked up what the UK Lakes Database lists as the biggest waterbodies named ponds.

Fleet Pond comes in at number 4 in the whole country.

The top 5 are:

Pond of Drummond 33.9 ha (Perth and Kinross)
Bosherton Lily Ponds 33.8 ha (Pembrokeshire)
Frensham Great Pond 29.2 ha (Surrey)
Fleet Pond 26.4 ha (Hampshire)
Burton Mill Pond 21.9 ha (West Sussex)

Of course there is a boringly practical and usable definition of what separates ponds from lakes, which Pond Conservation (and many other people in the UK) now routinely use.

‘Man-made or natural waterbodies, between 1 metre square and 2 ha in area, which may be permanent or seasonal’

But hey, who wants boring and practical.

Interestingly, of the things formally named ‘pond’ on the Ordnance Survey only 50 in the whole country, out of our estimated half a million or so waterbodies, were more than 2 ha – so the working definition pretty much works.

Tags: Ponds and lakes