The Plug Hole

We have a pond near us, called Seafield Pond where I take the dogs for their afternoon walk. It is literally 5 minutes away - down the lane, along the river and adjacent to the Sea Wall for Belhaven Bay. From the early 19th century the area was used as a clay pit for a brickworks. It was then abandoned and became by default something of a local tip then eventually it was decided to create a natural looking pond by allowing the pit to fill with rainwater. And on the whole the local planners of that time succeeded in their aims and we now have a natural looking pond with reed beds which is home to quite a number of different birds, ducks and swans. Most years there is also a heron who nests on its far banks.

However, as it was once a dump there are a couple of blow holes for the methane to escape and being a clay pit it tends to retain any rain water that falls on it. This means that most years, sometime in winter some of this rainwater needs to be pumped out as the pond is adjacent to a holiday caravan site and there is therefore the danger of flooding. The pumps are usually left running for a couple of weeks. Where do they pump the water you may ask. By a fortuitous accident the clay pits happened to be close to the sea wall at Belhaven so the water is literally pumped over the sea wall and into the sea or for most of the day as Belhaven is a very shallow bay on to the salt marshes. Hence my blip. Not surprisingly this year with all the rain we have had, they have had to create this plug hole for the pond earlier in winter than usual. I don't know just how much water they have to pump but the pipe is probably about 10 inches in diameter so it always looks a lot. One can't help thinking of the poor folk who have been flooded this year.