Crammer Pond

There was a break in the weather today during which I made a smash and grab shopping raid on the supermarket in Devizes. On the way, I stopped by the canal near the Bridge Inn at Horton to finally test the new lens when it wasn't raining. I've linked to a couple of examples below, but today's blip was taken at the Crammer pond on the Green in Devizes, just opposite the entrance to the supermarket.

The pond was first marked as the Crammer in Dore's map of Devizes in 1759. In 1844 part of it was used to expand St James Churchyard. Crammer Pond is named after the German merchants, or Kramer, who used to erect their stalls next to it.

According to a plaque there, a group of locals from Bishops Cannings had brought some contraband brandy over Salisbury Plain from Orcheston when there came word that excise officers were in the area. Wrapping the barrels of liquor in tarred paper, they sank them in the pond. When they thought the officials had left, they returned to reclaim the ill-gotten gains, hooking the casks out of the water with agricultural rakes, only to be challenged by a group of excise officers, who demanded to know what they were up to. Thinking quickly, one of them pointed to the reflection of the full moon in the water, and said, "We'm tryin' to get that girt big cheese out of the water." The officers rode off, laughing at the idiocy of the yokels, leaving the locals, the moonrakers, to retrieve the loot.

Alternatives:
Rooks at Horton
Mallard on the canal bank, Horton
Second Swan, Crammer Pond, Devizes

Lens: Sigma 70-300mm