Helena at the dew pond on Minchinhampton Common

Helena and I decided to go for a walk together somewhere out of the valleys. We drove uip through Butterow onto Rodborough Common and then along the ridge to the beginning of the much larger Minchinhampton Common. It isn’t far away, perhaps two miles due south of us, but several hundred feet higher.

The sunshine we’d enjoyed earlier in the morning had by now been covered by fast scudding clouds reflecting the windy conditions on the ground. Under foot everywhere was wet and very muddy if there was clay nearby. We parked near one of the old quarries which are scattered all over the common, their pock marked relief being relics of the former diggings of a particularly hard and valuable carboniferous limestone strata that is only found in horizontal layers on the top of Minchinhampton Common. The nearby Rodborough Common being a bit lower doesn’t have that  specific rock type.

We crossed the ancient road running east to Cirencester which was also used by the stage coaches since the seventeenth century heading to London from Stroud. They chose to use the tops of the Cotswold grasslands because they were very dry in comparison to the steep sided valleys which are always very wet from all the abundant springs. 

From this picture you can see the steep drop behind the pond as the hillside falls down into the Golden Valley directly behind formed by the River Frome. The pond is of a type called a ‘dew pond’ which are used to provide drinking water for cattle that have always traditionally grazed these Cotswold limestone grasslands, producing a unique type of habitat. This common is owned and run by the National Trust in such a way as to retain its traditional features. The dew pond was renovated in relatively recent times but can still run dry in very hot summers.

Dew ponds are thought by some to have ancient origins, but it is not certain. They definitely have been proven to have Angle-Saxon origins in a few placers in Britain after archaeological investigation. This common was occupied by Iron Age settlers hundreds of years before the Romas occupied parts of this landscape just a mile or so from here. So perhaps they are very old. I like them. I also like to see Helena posing for my camera beside them. This was spontaneous behaviour on her behalf, and though uncalled for it was much appreciated. Thank you, Woodpeckers!