Volunteers joined senior council ranger Ian Bailey on Thursday (Oct 31) to plant hundreds of bulbs, including wild garlic and bluebell, around Cutbush Hidden Pond, near Meggeson Avenue, which has just had a major programme of work including pond dredging and construction of a new viewing platform.
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The work has been funded by Veolia, supplemented by contributions from local Bitterne Park councillors understood to be using their members’ minor works budgets, and now wound-down community project SO18 Big Local .
Southampton City Council Senior Ranger (East) Ian Bailey, on the right, with volunteers at Cutbush Hidden Pond. Photo: THRILL
The now not so hidden pond. Photo: THRILL
Townhill Regeneration Is Leaving Legacy (THRILL) said it was was pleased to promote and support the event.
Cutbush Hidden Pond photographed in June 2023. Photo: Tony Bunday
A 2021 council survey about the pond and nearby Frogs Copse, which urged residents to have a say and help shape their local area, provided the following description:
“Cutbush pond, also known as Hidden pond and Meggeson Avenue pond, is a waterbody set within an extensive area of broad-leaved woodland on the northern edge of Meggeson Avenue, Townhill Park. The exact origins of the pond are not clear, but the pond appears on aerial photographs dating as far back as 1940. The pond is around 70 metres in perimeter, steep sided in places but shelving gently where it abuts the meadow to the north-west. The pond has great potential as a wildlife resource but also potentially as a location for school children to learn from.”
Cutbush Hidden Pond photographed in April 2023. Photo: Tony Bunday
Link
The mystery of the hidden pond - I Walk Alone blog