Talk:Dew pond

A fact from Dew pond appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 30 December 2004. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that dew ponds are man-made ponds placed on the top of hills, built for watering livestock?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2004/December.

Wikipedia

Dew ponds are quite widely used in the Staffordshire moorlands. The underlying limestone is very permeable, and there is very little surface water, especially in high summer. Looking down from high ground it is possible to see functional and disfunctional dewponds scattered across the landscape. The high dewponds are still used, as there is insufficient mains water pressure to supply cattle troughs without expensive additional pumping.

Shoka

Dew ponds appear in all the downlands of southern England, not just the South Downs (a specific region of Sussex and Hampshire counties.) Old Moonraker 16:26, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Beeston Regis

Most local sources refer to this newly restored feature (located on "Brook Road") as a "dew pond" but local large scale maps show that it's stream- (or as the Ordnance Survey prosaically describes it, "drain")-fed and thus not a dew pond. Both this example and the Cleeve Hill one are a bit WP:RECENT and I'm inclined to delete both, subject to other editors' views. --Old Moonraker (talk) 13:22, 6 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Done. --Old Moonraker (talk) 10:10, 7 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Dew pond

Your information about the Dew pond on Beeston Regis is wrong. The reinstated pond on what is known as the Back common is not stream-fed at all. You may be getting it confused with the pond on the part of the common that is on the southern side of the A149 coast road. I happen to live not 300 yrds from the Dew pond. The watercourse known as Sheringham Loke runs alongside the Dew pond but in no way feeds the pond in question. I hope you will now replace the photo and text you removed from the Dew pond article.

Regards Stavros1 (talk) 12:39, 8 April 2008 (UTC).[reply]

The Centre of the image below is the approx centre of the reinstared pond (The small rond circle in the middle). As you can plainly see there is no stream to the pool

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=nr268ey&ie=UTF8&ll=52.939389,1.221285&spn=0.000663,0.001483&t=k&z=19 RegardsStavros1 (talk) 13:19, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the link on my talk page—we are looking at the same pond. I'm sure that with your local knowledge we can sort this out. Follow this link: 52°56′22″N 1°13′17″E / 52.939508°N 1.221502°E, select "MAGIC tool" as your resource and view at 1:5000. This is a monochrome map and the resolution is not good, but you will see a "drain" flowing north-westwards across the north side of the common through what is now the pond. My big problem is not with the watercourse, which is very plain, but with the pond, which as yet is not on the map or, as you say, Google earth. I am indeed relying heavily on your local knowledge! --Old Moonraker (talk) 13:55, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Afterthought: By definition, dew ponds occur only on downland—"open chalk hills", not on village greens. Please also check the recentism on Wikipedia warning about including current events without regard to the wider, encyclopaedic perspective. --Old Moonraker (talk) 14:01, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Dew ponds are not exclusive to downland they are drinking ponds for farm animals on arid hilltops such as chalk downs. Just what constitutes a dewpond ?

Royal Commission on Historic Monuments Dewpond:- A shallow pond, often artificial, fed by the condensation of water from the air, occurring on high land which has no other adequate water supply.

Longman - a shallow pond, natural or artificial, fed by condensation, not by a spring.

Chambers - a hollow supplied with water by mist Palmiped (talk) 15:36, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm happy with "arid hilltops", whatever the underlying porous geology. However "condensation...mist" etc is picturesque but definitely wrong: it's specifically ruled out in the article text. You prompted me to add a source, though, which I should have done long before! --Old Moonraker (talk) 15:53, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Old Moonraker

You are correct in your knowledge about the Loke that flows north-westwards across the north side of the common. The watercourse is called Sheringham Loke and is a tributary of Beeston Beck. The reinstated Dew pond is approximately 30 feet south of the Loke. When the Dew pond was reinstated last autumn it stood empty for several weeks until we had a lot of rain which soon filled the pond. On the Google image you can make out the footpaths that form a triangle at the north east end of the common, next to the old school house. The footpath on the south west of the triangle runs between the pond and Sheringham Loke. There is no flow into or out of the pond and it has already become a well used habitat by the local wildlife. If you study the image that I put on th Dew pond page you can see a small yellow sign and a row of cars. The stream runs along the front of the cars and the sign.I hope this has made the situation a little clearer. Stavros1 (talk) 21:46, 8 April 2008 (UTC) [reply]

Beeston Regis Common is not a Village Green!. It has a very long history and has had grazing rights granted by the Priory of Beeston Regis going back hundreds of years, which is why there is a Dew pond on the common. Having spoken to many of the older residents. I have been told that between the Wars, sheep were a common site on the Back common along with cattle. One old timer has told me that the Dew pond was at one time much larger than the reinstated pond but he was still pleased that the local council had invested in the reinstatement. Stavros1 (talk) 22:02, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed it has made the situation clearer: the stream I am talking about actually misses the new pond by some yards. Thanks for the clarification. However, based on my other points (in the "afterthought") I still don't think that Beeston Regis should be included, but if there is an authoritative published source (see verifiability) it might be an interesting exception to the OED's definition cited in the footnote. I completely accept your point about the "common" being much larger than the typical village green.

Again, appealing for other editors' views. --Old Moonraker (talk) 22:17, 8 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Have a look at this webpage [1]. Information about the grazing and there is a picture of the Dew Pond from another angle, at the bottom of the page. Stavros1 (talk) 11:25, 9 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've just had a look at the Wikipedia article on Beeston Regis. It's one of the best "small-town" pages I've seen: certainly much better than the page for my own home town, which doesn't go much further than the church and the local football club. However the dew pond and its history doesn't get much of a mention: just your picture in the gallery, with caption. Would it be better to expand its background and history (including your material about grazing, above) on that page, rather than incorporate something like the banal "Council funds restoration of pond" here? To me it looks out of place in an article of supposedly broad international scope, in an encyclopaedia with huge international reach. In short, why should Beeston Regis's pond be included above all the others in the world? I hope this doesn't seem unfriendly, and I really appreciate that you are taking the trouble to research my concerns (for example following up the course of Sheringham Loke) and discuss them here: I'm just trying to preserve the quality and independence from local issues of Wikipedia. A better-worded explanation of the policy is at WP:LOCAL, which suggests: "Initially, information on places of local importance should be added to an article on the community where that place is located".

Again, thanks for taking the trouble to discuss the issue on the talk page. --Old Moonraker (talk) 11:57, 9 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Breaking news: The new pond has been added to the 1:25000 map.[2]. It shows the drain passing well clear of the pond, as User:Stavros1 explains above. The common is now shaded with the "access land" tint. --Old Moonraker (talk) 13:24, 9 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Jack and Jill (song)

It was stated in Dew Ponds `History observation and experiment` by Edward A Martin in 1915 that the reason Jack and Jill went up the hill was to fetch water from a dew pond. --palmiped | Talk 16:38, 22 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Chalk puddle

Both Pugsley, Alfred J & Martin, Edward A mention the use of chalk puddle in place of clay puddle being used in the construction, fine chalk is used. Martin mentioned a dew pond at Ditchling, West Sussex being lined with chalk puddle.--palmiped | Talk 19:36, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm confused as to how this works, because chalk is porous, but it needs to go in. Thanks, User:palmiped, for the explanation on my talk page of how the problem is overcome.

There's a note on my talk page querying marl. The material in the bluelink is what's meant only in the secondary, older meaning; if kept, this will need to be clarified. It seems to be a local term in north Wiltshire (i.e. around Marlborough, see the name's origin on Marlborough College) and the one citeable example of this use I have found so far refers only to agriculture, and not dew ponds. If I can't find a better source it might not be worth keeping. Any views from other editors? To deal with later today, unless someone fixes things first. --Old Moonraker (talk) 08:02, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's fixed. Thanks, once again, User:palmiped. --Old Moonraker (talk) 06:10, 28 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Beeston Regis Dew Pond

Having now done some local research on our Dew pond in Beeston Regis, mainly by asking the locals. It has become apparent that the pond in question has always been called the Dew pond in what can only be described as living memory. It was used by the locals for refreshing livestock which was pastured on both parts of Beeston Common. It appears that the parish council are responsible for leting it become overgrown to the point were it became nothing more than a boggy, sludge bowl. As for its regeneration it was done as follows. A local contractor with a small JCB pulled all the sludge and boggy material out of the area. The shallow bowl was then carefully re-lined with a clay/chalk lining and for several weeks remained virtually empty apart from a small pool. Gradually over the Christmas period (2007/2008) the pond began to fill from rainfall and by January of 2008 it had become full. The margins of the pond are now beginning to fill with new plant life. Including a clump of Flag Iris that had always flowered in the pit that was the pond and had been carefully rescued and placed back in the new pond. It has now become a fantastic addition to this part of the common and wildlife is returning to populate the regenerated pond. Stavros1 (talk) 22:07, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

from main text

No research has been put onto Wikipedia about the cooling effect of Space on the water in a dew pond. The fact that dew ponds are insulated from the earth with straw means that they are capable of using the cold-retaining quality of water (its thermal capacity) to utilise the fact that Space is at -273℃ to chill the water in the pond at night, especially on clear nights. This needs referencing.--palmiped | Talk 14:41, 17 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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Measuring of dew production - does it work for dew collection?

Most of the article and the scientific literature I perused indicate that dew collection is not an actual use for dew ponds. Is this section correct or the rest of the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Icewoman27 (talk • contribs) 03:17, 25 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]