Duck Pond

This is the Duck Pond in Torre Abbey Gardens, or it was until all the water drained away late last year. About 3 weeks ago there was an item in the local paper in which a council spokesperson stated it was going to be repaired at a cost of £50 000 and the water, and hopefully the ducks would be back by the middle of June. Well it's gone, the middle of June that is and no water and certainly no ducks. Just an ugly fence all round and a notice saying the work was being undertaken. Something is happening, look at the round marks in the concrete. Not sure what they are but they weren't there 10 days ago. The problem with council estimates as to how long a job will take is that the person who makes the estimate usually does it by throwing a dart at a calender while blindfolded and standing on his head. Tweenaway Cross is and example of the method. Why don't they just say,"We don't know how long it will take. We will let you know when it's finished.

Torbay Loses an Other Duck Pond

This is me a few days ago enjoying the beautiful spring weather presently griping Torquay. And most other places I have to admit. I am actually standing in the duck pond in Torr Abbey Gardens, right in the centre and I'm not getting my feet wet. Neither are the ducks for all I know because they have long since flown. The parks department haven't drained the duck pond with the idea of cleaning it. No, the water just slowly vanished before our very eyes never to be seen again. The police are baffled, sorry, that should read the Parks Department are baffled but they are looking into the matter. They aren't looking for the actual water, just the villain who made off with it. Some low life hole in the ground. Situated somewhere in the duck pond. It's not as though it's the first case of it's kind round here, no Torbay is getting quiet notorious for it. Only last year and two miles down the road the Gas Works Duck Pond also vanished, as did the ducks but it is believed they flew of on their own looking for a new pond.

Now as far as I know there is only one duck pond left in the nearby area, if that one goes then it is probable that fresh duck will be off the menu this coming Christmas.

PS. If you quack, sorry click on the label "Duck Pond" below it will take you to the other duck pond story. DCB

Hollicombe Duck Pond

This is the duck pond in Hollicombe Park. That is it used to be a duck pond. It sprang a leak in the summer and most of the water went somewhere else. Bad news for the fish in the pond and bad news for the ducks who ended up living on the nearby beach before other accommodation could be found for them. Bad news for the small children who used to be brought here by their mothers' to feed the ducks.

The pond as you can see is circular. This is because when it was created the base of a gas holder was used back in 1970 when the gas holder became redundant. It had been hoped that the leak would be fixed, that would involve pumping out the remaining water, digging out a couple of thousand tonnes of soil and cleaning down to the brickwork. Once the brick work has been cleaned the leak has to be found and repaired. Then the soil put back and suitable vegetation planted and fish re-introduced. Not a massive job compared to building the International Space Station but never the less not one Torbay Council wish to undertake in these times of financial worry.

Next to this former gas holder is a smaller circle which is completely filled in and grassed over and

Ali-Way Community Recycling Enterprise which is based Hollicombe Community Resource Centre have a plan to use these two stone circles. The smaller one will become a Wild Life Garden and the larger one, the former duck pond, will be the site of a

Recycled Sculpture Trail. A what? I hear you mutter. No they are not going to tour the country looking for unused Henry Moore sculptures and plant the in the circle. The scrap sculptures will be made out of the materials we are presently and carefully putting in boxes every week to be collected by TOR2 and sent of the be recycled in a desperate but futile attempt to save the planet. Actually I don't have a problem with that idea. What I do have a problem with is where it's going. I.E. in the former duck pond. In order to create a Wild Life space in the smaller circle it will have to be dug up to some extent and to make the sculpture trail on the old duck pond it will have to be filled in. The old duck pond is half way towards being a wild life park as it is so why not make both it and the smaller circle an even larger wild life space and use the large space that is available future down the park where a 3rd gas holder once stood. (See 2nd photo).The area is doing nothing at the moment and is already covered with asphalt and perfect for the job. Then if money does become more freely available we can easily restore this much loved duck pond, even if it is only loved by the ducks, generations of whom have lived there.

To tell the truth the only way I can see the duck pond being restored is if a large enough group of volunteers come along with buckets, spades and bags of cement and do the job themselves. Back in the sixties all over the North of England canals had become clogged up and overgrown and no official body had the money or the will to fix them. That hundreds of canals are still in existence today is because they came under the care of such volunteer groups.

The Duck Pond, Hollacombe.

I mentioned the state of the duck pond at Hollacombe gas works recently, lack of water, no ducks. I haven't been that way for a few weeks and only noticed when I went to have a look at the new library in Paignton. Anyway a reader of the blog saw the item and sent me a copy of emails he had been sending the council regarding the lack of water and the likely fate of the few fish that were surviving in the rapidly evaporating water. The first 2 emails were sent in July to the council without reply. A third email received a reply but all that did was pass the problem on to someone who was on holiday. Meanwhile the ducks were homeless and the fish were heading for extinction, ( seagull food).
A four email headed for the council computer trying to prod someone into doing something. They did, the deputy mayor said he would bring the matter to the attention of the person (above) who had just played pass the parcel with the pond. Then a week later came the email from the parks department which stated there was nothing the council could do about the lack of water which was due to the 'dry' weather we had during July and August. Parks did say they had been down and see if there were any uneaten fish that could be moved elsewhere but couldn't find any.
I started this item saying I hadn't noticed the lack of water in the pond until last week as I haven't been that way for a few months. But in the past I used to go that way every day. In the last 11 years I must have been by thousands of times and even in the driest of weather I have never notice the water level so low which makes me think the problem is there is a leak in the pond. Fixing such a problem is not going to be easy and given the current financial state of affairs it could end up beyond the Park Department's budget and we end up loosing the duck pond. Which is a shame for those who visit the park regularly. And for the ducks.


In case you are wondering what happened to the ducks, some of then are living on the nearby beach and can here be seen drinking from the stream which is supposed to keep the duck pond full of water.
No sign of it drying up thank goodness or they would have no where to get a drink.