Table of Contents
Bishop's Pond, Fordingbridge
The Friends of Bishop's Pond photo gallery is working again. It needs some more photos and some T.L.C.
🔪🌿 The next working session at the pond is on $[hdcolor $\brown$\$]Saturday 14th February$[/hdcolor$] from $[hdcolor $\brown$\$]2 pm to 4 pm$[/hdcolor$] 🔪🌿
We meet at Bishop's Pond three times per month, on a Monday, a Saturday and a Sunday as listed below, to carry out conservation work. All sessions start at 2 p.m. and last two hours. Sometimes a session is cancelled at short notice if the weather conditions or forecast are unsuitable. The traffic light on the left indicates whether the next session will go ahead – $[hdcolor $\green$\$]green$[/hdcolor$] means OK (unless the forecast changes), $[hdcolor $\orange$\$]amber$[/hdcolor$] means we're considering cancellation, and $[hdcolor $\red$\$]red$[/hdcolor$] means the session has been cancelled.
Everyone — including you — is very welcome to come along to help us (no skills are required), or just to find out what we do and have a look round to see how the conservation work at the site is progressing.
February
Saturday 14th
Sunday 22nd
March
Monday 2nd
Saturday 14th
Sunday 22nd
Monday 30th (instead of Easter Monday)
April
(Monday 6th – no meeting – Easter Monday)
Saturday 18th
Sunday 26th
May
Monday 4th (bank holiday)
Saturday 16th
Sunday 24th
June
Monday 1st
Saturday 13th
Sunday 21st
You can find us:
- from Normandy Way: enter Cottage Mews (the pond is then on the left, opposite no. 1 Cottage Mews on the right; there is parking in front of the long wall ahead of you) and go through the gate in the hedge on the left, between the street lamp and the car ports outside no. 12, or
- from Green Lane (on foot or by bike; no access by car): follow the gravel track which branches off just west of the bridge over Sweatford's Water, go through the gate into Cottage Mews and then through the gate in the hedge on the right, after the car ports outside no. 12 and before the street lamp.
If you use your phone or sat-nav to find us, the postcode is SP6 1RJ. If you like What3Words, go to ///fingernails.paving.roughest (which is also a reminder to wear gloves and stout shoes!)
We are required to keep the gate into the Pond area locked for safety reasons, except during working sessions.
News
2 Feb 2026: The Pond is even fuller!
Obviously it was a mistake to claim that the pond was full on the previous occasion — today it's even more full, as is the moat into which it overflows.
Snowdrops are in full bloom, wild daffodils will be soon, and catkins are festooning the hazel bushes. As well as various other fungi, now mostly dying off, we found one or two freshly growing Scarlet Elf-cup fungi (Sarcoscypha coccinea) at the northern end of the woodland where we've seen them before in early spring in the last two years (see 04 Mar 2024: Spring colours). A surprise though was finding a scattering of seven or eight individuals and small groups in a new area behind the main log stack near the pond. This species has also been spotted recently in the “Sweatford's Woodland” area which is starting to be managed by the Woodland group of Fordingbridge Greener Living.
A pair of mallard have taken up residence. They may be the same pair which visited us last spring. No doubt they are waiting for frog-spawn to appear on the menu, and probably also looking for a suitable nest site is a hidden spot or nearby garden.
25 Jan 2026: The Pond is full
The pond is now full, thanks presumably to all the rain we've had recently, and more water coming in through the inflow pipe at the southern end, The outflow at the northern end will prevent the water level rising any higher, reassuring to the occupants of numbers 12 – 15 Cottage Mews right by the pond.
The outflow has no doubt contributed to the water level in the ancient moat just to the north of the pond. This moat is believed to have surrounded the Woodfidley Manor house, the remains of which lie in the grounds of the neighbouring property. .
Following the discovery of the small Horse Chestnut tree last year (see 24 Aug 2025: New tree discovered), and the identification of an area with Elm saplings (1 Sep 2025: We have elms!), today we noticed several small Beeches about 50–70 cm high. So even the species list for trees is increasing! The species list for fungi is also increasing, but their identification is more challenging!
3 Nov 2025: Fungi and not fungi
It's been an interesting autumn for fungi around the Pond, with several new species recorded. One of these is Honey Fungus (Armillaria mellea agg.) which we've spotted on dead tree stumps along the Normandy Way side of the area. This identification has not been confirmed, but we will discuss it with the Town Council in case any action is required to protect healthy trees.
A more exciting discovery, on the same stump as the Honey Fungus as it happens, was Fuligo septica, commonly known as “Scrambled egg slime mould”, because of its appearance, or even less attractively as “Dog vomit slime mould”. All the references to it that I've found so far have used the American spelling of “mold”. Despite appearances, it isn't a fungus, it's a slime mould. These are basically Protozoa, like Amoeba. Individual cells move around and, when dense enough, aggregate together to produce a fungus-like body eventually developing spore-bearing structures.
1 Sep 2025: We have elms!
We finished our tree inventory at today's meeting, and were able to add another tree to our list. We are now fairly sure that the the scrubby stuff which we had previously dismissed as a form of birch is actually elm (Ulmus sp.) It appears that the identification of elms is a complex business, with botanists disagreeing over how many species (and hybrids) there actually are. To give you an idea of the problem, I've downloaded a couple of elm identification guides and added them to our Library.
Although our elms are shrubby growths, clustered around the north-east corner of the pond and apparently suckering, we have found one or two in good locations where they can be encouraged to grow larger. However, we do not expect them to reach the stature of the elms of the English countryside before Dutch Elm Disease decimated them, and they may not be the same species as those.
24 Aug 2025: New tree discovered
During today's working session we decided to carry out a partial inventory of the larger and smaller trees, with a view to planning which ones to look after and which ones need to be removed to make more room for the others. We need to allow light to penetrate to the woodland floor to allow the smaller plants such as the bluebells and other flowers to flourish, not to mention encouraging biodiversity generally.
We were surprised to find a horse-chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) which we hadn't noticed before! Just shows how important it is to do surveys!
Further information
- Here is a booklet by Graham Long with details of the history as well as recent activities at the pond
- Bishop's Pond is a Site of Interest for Nature Conservation (SINC). See Status of Bishop's Pond for more details.
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- Newspaper and magazine articles:
- Built a hibernaculum! (from Ringwood and Fordingbridge News, issue 843, 19 October 2022, page 16)
- Fordingbridge Focus Magazine, Sept/Oct 2022, p.34.
- Bishop's Pond full from end to end and is bursting with life (from Ringwood and Fordingbridge News, 17 March 2021, page 6)
- Plans to transform Bishop's Pond: Salisbury Journal, 18 November 2017
- Formation of the current group: Salisbury Journal, 4 August 2009, including a photo with the late Rev. Graham Long and Peter Tullett, founders of the group