The old weir at Arundel Mill pond, Stroud

In the last couple of days a problem has arisen with an old property Stroud Preservation Trust developed some twenty years ago, before my time as a trustee. But we have to respond very quickly as there may be a potential (but probably marginal) danger of dead trees falling across boundaries. I wanted to see for myself and record the site as there is a definite dispute about legal issues. Taking photos as a record of the situation is often my role in the trust, as well as being Company Secretary, so off I went to do my duty, camera in hand.

There I met Jon, a fellow trustee, which was useful as we could discuss the facts as we found them in front of us. The building which the Trust renovated was Arundel Mill, situated a few hundred yards east of the town centre on the River Frome. Our website describes Arundel Mill House outlining the basics of the project and has a few old pictures showing the finished buildings. The actual mill was long gone so it was associated buildings and the Mill House that we were able to renovate and sell on. We held the freeholds but have sold some of them to the leasehold owners when they so wished.

After Jon went back to run his business as an independent heritage consultant, I decided to go through the site to the old mill pond and the River Frome, which I knew from a BBC story was being revitalised. A key element is to allow eels to pass up river at this point once again.

The workmen on the site explained that the mill pond had been drained and they were now awaiting imminent permission to remove the fish and other creatures from the remaining silt and surroundings land before cleaning out the pond. The intention is to refresh the water’s depth and allow the traditional path of the river through the pond to be re-instigated with islands of silt formed to retain wildlife. 

Work on the weir has already started and they’ve cleared and cleaned up the overflow channel, which you can see on the right that allows water to flow round and down through the foreground back into the river’s stream. They suggested there would be more to see in the next few weeks so I’ll return and probably blip there again.