Sowley Pond
Encyclopedia
Sowley Pond is a 47.97 hectare
biological Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI), in southwest Hampshire
, notified in 1971. It is an important refuge for both surface feeding and diving ducks and functions as an integral part of the marshland system of the west Solent.
, approximately 1 km from the Solent
and is midway between Lymington
and Bucklers Hard
. The road crossing the dam that was constructed to form the pond is part of the Solent Way
long-distance footpath.
who dammed the Crockford stream, which rises on Beaulieu Heath, to form a fishery.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the pond was used to supply water for an ironworks
situated on the opposite side of the road on what is now Sandpit Lane.
. It had a tenuous existence during the 17th century, but with the rapid expansion of Portsmouth dockyard
the works were taken over by Henry Corbett, a specialist blacksmith from London, who set up a forge at Beaulieu
in conjunction with Sowley. He was financed by Edmund Dummer
, a former surveyor of the Navy
, and naval contracts for wrought iron
followed. Corbett died in 1708 and Dummer continued the business until 1712 when he went bankrupt and his brother Thomas (an ex-navy purser) continued to supply the navy until 1716. By the 1790s, the ironworks were leased by Charles Pocock who lived at the adjacent Sowley House but the ironworks became uneconomic and ceased operating after the Napoleonic Wars
. The forge continued to operate until about 1822.
At various times a water powered blast furnace existed as well as (intermittently) a finery forge. In the 1750s a refractory furnace was built. Today, the site of the furnace is indicated by a patch of reddened earth, around which is a heavy concentration of furnace slag
. The site of the forge is near the edge of a hollow (wheelpit) below the dam, where heavy concentrations of forge cinder marks are evident. There is a local saying that "the Sowley hammer can be heard" which means that rain is on the way.
The former Forge Hammer Inn adjacent to the house and ironworks was used by smugglers
in the Eighteenth century to hide contraband
. The goods were landed at nearby Pitts Deep Hard and hidden in the cellars of the inn. During one raid by the coastguard the landlady was despatched to divert the coastguards while the tubs of illicit brandy
were moved from their hiding place in the chimney to the safety of a nearby copse of trees. "The landlady advanced upon them. Singling out one of the officers who owed her a score for...liquid refreshment, she abused him roundly for not paying his debts..." When the contraband was safe, the landlady admitted the coastguard, who found nothing, and were once more abused for interfering with the business of honest citizens.
The heronry
at Sowley is the largest in Hampshire; in 1984 this held 60 occupied nests although now more well known for its nesting little egrets.
Variable damselfly (Coenagrion pulchellum) also breed at Sowley Pond.
In the 1900s, King Edward VII
presented a pair of sika deer (Cervus nippon) to John, the second Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
. This pair escaped into Sowley Wood and were the basis of the large herds of sika to be found in the forest today. They were so prolific that culling had to be introduced in the 1930s to control numbers.
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
biological Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
(SSSI), in southwest Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, notified in 1971. It is an important refuge for both surface feeding and diving ducks and functions as an integral part of the marshland system of the west Solent.
Location
Sowley Pond is situated on the southern edge of the New ForestNew Forest
The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....
, approximately 1 km from the Solent
Solent
The Solent is a strait separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England.The Solent is a major shipping route for passengers, freight and military vessels. It is an important recreational area for water sports, particularly yachting, hosting the Cowes Week sailing event annually...
and is midway between Lymington
Lymington
Lymington is a port on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It is to the east of the South East Dorset conurbation, and faces Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight which is connected to it by a car ferry, operated by Wightlink. The town...
and Bucklers Hard
Bucklers Hard
Bucklers Hard is a hamlet situated on the banks of the Beaulieu River in the English county of Hampshire.- Overview :With its Georgian cottages running down to the river, Bucklers Hard is part of the 9,000 acre Beaulieu Estate...
. The road crossing the dam that was constructed to form the pond is part of the Solent Way
Solent Way
The Solent Way is a 60 mile long-distance footpath in Hampshire, southern England. With the exception of a few inland diversions, the path follows the coast of the Solent, the sea strait that separates the mainland England from the Isle of Wight...
long-distance footpath.
History
Sowley Pond was formed in the fourteenth century by monks from nearby Beaulieu AbbeyBeaulieu Abbey
Beaulieu Abbey, , was a Cistercian abbey located in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1203-1204 by King John and peopled by 30 monks sent from the abbey of Cîteaux in France, the mother house of the Cistercian order...
who dammed the Crockford stream, which rises on Beaulieu Heath, to form a fishery.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the pond was used to supply water for an ironworks
Ironworks
An ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and/or steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e...
situated on the opposite side of the road on what is now Sandpit Lane.
The Ironworks
The Sowley ironworks were completed in the 1590s by the Earl of SouthamptonHenry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton
Henry Wriothesley , 3rd Earl of Southampton , was the second son of Henry Wriothesley, 2nd Earl of Southampton, and his wife Mary Browne, Countess of Southampton, daughter of the 1st Viscount Montagu...
. It had a tenuous existence during the 17th century, but with the rapid expansion of Portsmouth dockyard
HMNB Portsmouth
Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the British Royal Navy...
the works were taken over by Henry Corbett, a specialist blacksmith from London, who set up a forge at Beaulieu
Beaulieu, Hampshire
Beaulieu is a small village located on the south eastern edge of the New Forest national park in Hampshire, England and home to both Palace House and the British National Motor Museum.- History :...
in conjunction with Sowley. He was financed by Edmund Dummer
Edmund Dummer (naval engineer)
Edmund Dummer was an English naval engineer and shipbuilder who, as Surveyor of the Navy, founded the Royal Navy dockyard at , Plymouth and extended that at Portsmouth. His survey of the Royal Navy Dockyards is a valuable and well-known historic document...
, a former surveyor of the Navy
Surveyor of the Navy
The Surveyor to the Navy was a civilian officer in the Royal Navy. He was a member of the Navy Board from the inauguration of that body in 1546, and held overall responsibility for the design of British warships, although until 1745 the actual design work for warships built at each Royal Dockyard...
, and naval contracts for wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
followed. Corbett died in 1708 and Dummer continued the business until 1712 when he went bankrupt and his brother Thomas (an ex-navy purser) continued to supply the navy until 1716. By the 1790s, the ironworks were leased by Charles Pocock who lived at the adjacent Sowley House but the ironworks became uneconomic and ceased operating after the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. The forge continued to operate until about 1822.
At various times a water powered blast furnace existed as well as (intermittently) a finery forge. In the 1750s a refractory furnace was built. Today, the site of the furnace is indicated by a patch of reddened earth, around which is a heavy concentration of furnace slag
Slag
Slag is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal fraction from the unwanted fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms in the elemental form...
. The site of the forge is near the edge of a hollow (wheelpit) below the dam, where heavy concentrations of forge cinder marks are evident. There is a local saying that "the Sowley hammer can be heard" which means that rain is on the way.
Sowley House
The house, which is situated to the south of the pond, is privately owned and not open to the public. In 2001, it was occupied by Otto and Catharina van der Vorm, from the Netherlands. The gardens have large quantities of rare orchids and wild flower meadows which extend down to the Solent shore.The former Forge Hammer Inn adjacent to the house and ironworks was used by smugglers
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
in the Eighteenth century to hide contraband
Contraband
The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....
. The goods were landed at nearby Pitts Deep Hard and hidden in the cellars of the inn. During one raid by the coastguard the landlady was despatched to divert the coastguards while the tubs of illicit brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
were moved from their hiding place in the chimney to the safety of a nearby copse of trees. "The landlady advanced upon them. Singling out one of the officers who owed her a score for...liquid refreshment, she abused him roundly for not paying his debts..." When the contraband was safe, the landlady admitted the coastguard, who found nothing, and were once more abused for interfering with the business of honest citizens.
Flora
Among the tree and plant species found at Sowley are:- Oak Quercus
- Scots pine Pinus sylvestris
- Hazel Corylus avellanaCorylus avellanaCorylus avellana, the Common Hazel, is a species of hazel native to Europe and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Iberia, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, north to central Scandinavia, and east to the central Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and northwestern Iran. It is an important component of...
- Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna
- Butcher’s brome Ruscus aculeatus
- Wood spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides
- Early Purple Orchid Orchis mascula
- Lesser Quaking-grass Briza minorBriza minorBriza minor is a species of grass known by the common namesLesser quaking-grass or little quakinggrass. It is native to the Mediterranean Basin, and it is known elsewhere, including much of North America, as an introduced species. It is an annual grass producing narrow clumps of erect stems up to...
Fauna
Sowley is the home to many species of bird, including:- Mallard Anas platyrhynchos
- Wigeon Anas penelope
- Teal Anas crecca
- Tufted duck Aythya fuligula
- Pochard Aythya ferina
- Great crested grebe Podiceps cristatus
- Grey heron Ardea cinerea
The heronry
Heronry
A heronry is a breeding ground for herons, sometimes called a heron rookery.- Asia :* Kaggaladu Heronry is in Karnataka state of India...
at Sowley is the largest in Hampshire; in 1984 this held 60 occupied nests although now more well known for its nesting little egrets.
Variable damselfly (Coenagrion pulchellum) also breed at Sowley Pond.
In the 1900s, King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
presented a pair of sika deer (Cervus nippon) to John, the second Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
John Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu
John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu , was a British Conservative politician and promoter of motoring....
. This pair escaped into Sowley Wood and were the basis of the large herds of sika to be found in the forest today. They were so prolific that culling had to be introduced in the 1930s to control numbers.
External links
- Natural England website (SSSI information)
- Map of the SSSI
- Photos of the SSSI