Pond Restoration Work - School and Community Project South Wales
In October 2019, a group of volunteers from South Wales Overhead Line team, including Ellendale Environmental, went to Sennybridge Primary School near Brecon to help them with their forest school area. The task was to install wheelchair-friendly accesses and a new shed for the children to watch wildlife from.
Another part of the work was to clean out and restore a derelict pond that the children wanted to use for pond dipping.
A message from the pupils at Sennybridge Primary School
A message from the pupils at Sennybridge Primary School
We replaced the old, rotten pond dipping platform with the help of volunteers from the Prince’s Trust. However. when it came to clearing the pond it became apparent that the pond was in a worse state than anticipated, so the job was postponed.
The old pond in need of repair
On Friday, volunteers from Balfour Beatty and Ellendale Environmental returned to the school to repair the pond.
The first job was to clear out the debris from the existing pond to expose the pond liner. Over the years lots of leaf litter and branches had fallen into the pond, so the volunteers removed all this by hand using wheelbarrows and buckets. The existing liner was then cleaned to remove any sharp objects that might puncture the new liner when it was installed.
The school’s Eco-Committee came down to see the work in progress and give it their approval. As usual the children came up with some great questions for us to answer such as “Where are all the frogs?” [Answer: currently out of the pond over-wintering in the hibernaculum we created nearby in our previous visit], “When will you be finished?” and “Why are you all covered in mud?”.
Balfour Beatty purchased a new pond liner to replace the existing damaged one so next job was to lay it out and get it in place
Installing the new pond liner
With the new liner in place, the process of re-filling the pond began. During the filling any large stones that were removed from the original pond were replaced to provide habitat for aquatic invertebrates, frogs and toads.
Re-filling the pond
Once the pond was full, any excess liner was trimmed to make the edges neat. The edges will be covered with top soil once the pond has had a week or two to settle. The head master and other staff thanked the volunteers for their hard work and said the children can’t wait to get down there to use the facility in the Spring.
Pond full and ready for its first inhabitants to move in
