Laleham Pond

The beautiful little pond in Laleham Village, opposite the ‘Bella Vista’ restaurant, is there thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm of a group of volunteers. The Spelthorne Civic Pride volunteers have worked tirelessly for many hundreds of hours, to maintain and create the stunning feature we have today.

But what of its history? Records of the village reveal that there had been a pond on that site since 1604. A long term local resident, Laurie Potter, recalled skating on the pond as a child, and was disappointed to find it was long gone. He approached the Civic pride volunteers, who discovered the land was owned by Thames Water. They were delighted to hear the village wanted its pond back, and have helped enormously with costs for its reinstatement. They have paid for all the fencing in front of the pond and the new gates, and are constantly in touch to ensure it is operating smoothly. A very large donation of £6000 was given by BAA Heathrow in 1996, and £1000 by BA, and the excavation was carried out by the environment agency.

Now this beautiful and tranquil area is very much part of our delightful village and it is thanks to the persistence and efforts of local people. Fairly recently, with the help of a grant from Surrey Council, a dipping platform has been added. Sadly, just after the recent earthquake in January of this year, volunteers discovered that this platform had undulated badly and needed to be repaired. After consultations with Thames Water it was decided that this was in fact not due to earthquake damage, but by recent high levels of water in the pond, which caused the dipping platform to buckle. Thankfully now, this has been completely restored, due to the expertise and hard work of three local residents, Tom Proud, Dave Burt and Roy Gyngell. I think we owe them a debt of gratitude. They saved the village a great deal of money and it also enables the Civic Pride volunteers to open the dipping platform for the Laleham Garden open day.

Today the pond is a wonderful habitat for rare wild life, and it is often possible to see Kingfishers, Water Voles and even Great Crested Newts. None of this would have been possible without the efforts of the Spelthorne Civic pride volunteers who hold regular working bees to ensure the weeds and brambles are cut back and controlled. If you are interested in joining them, do contact the Laleham Residents Association and we will put you in touch. In the meantime, wander down and visit this beautiful spot and enjoy the tranquillity and peace you will find there.

Very many thanks to Viv for this contibution.