Removal of New Zealand Stonecrop

As part of a long term strategy to recover Balchin's Pond in Middle Street, volunteers from the Village Society were assisted by Roger Hammond of the Parish Council and Simon Elson with members of the Reigate Area Conservation Volunteers, in removing the highly invasive New Zealand Stonecrop.

Led by Pond Warden, Nick Green vast quantaties of Stonecrop (crassula helmsii) were removed. Introduced into Britain by acquatic garden centres this species is a highly invasive plant and destroys native plants in its bid for dominance.

Once the bulk of the Stonecrop has been removed the pond will be treated to remove as much of the remains as possible. Then the BGVS with the support of the Parish Council hope to have a pond management strategy in place to recover what could be a highly attractive spot.

It should be noted that the pond was once a simple 'cart pond' where carts were driven through to treat wooden wheels in dry weather. With the very dry weather we are unlikely to see the pond return to a full state as has been recorded in the 1970's but it should prove to be a thriving habitat for minibeasts and dragonflies.

If you would like to support and help out with Balchin's Pond please contact Nick Green on 01737 845566.

The Society would like to thank the hard work of Nick Green, Nick Caddick, Roger Hammond, Simon Elson, Martin Le Ray, Adrian, John and Gill.

October 2006

September 2003

The Village Society is looking into ways of improving water levels at Balchins Pond, in Middle Street.

Pond vegetation suffered badly during recent dry spells and the possibility of 'tankering-in' supplies was mooted at the Society's July meeting. East Surrey Water and Surrey Wildlife are to be approached for help.

January 2001

Balchins Pond, Brockham January 2001

Sorting out the pond is being driven by a small joint committee of BGVS and the Parish Council. Stage 1 was to clear out the invasive weed that had taken over, and in January a worthy band of 15+ volunteers broke the ice on the pond and spent a Sunday morning filling two skips with the weed. Various other groups helped out, e.g. Franks supplied the skips for free, and Martin LeRoy of the Reigate Conservation Society lent us waders and the long forks.

Balchins Pond, Brockham January 2001

Photographs of the volunteer group at work that morning were taken by Beryl Higgins.

You may have seen an article in the Dorking Advertiser about that time regarding a rather strange discovery. Apart from all the weed we also 'fished out' a large salmon which spent the rest of the week hanging from the tree by the bench.

It obviously caused some amusement at the time, no-one knowing how it had got there, although the truth came out later!

Return to top