Ponds & water gardens of St Ives

Throughout the history of the Estate, water has been used at St Ives as a source of power, for drinking and supplying the ornamental gardens. The Water Gardens were an extremely important feature, not only to garden historians but as a visitor attraction and place of enjoyment for local people. They were created for the Ferrands by designers of renown in the early 1820s. Today, in most cases, only traces of them remain.

Coppice Pond

A shallow, sub-rectangular, man-made lake, measuring 248m × 95m at its widest point. It was created initially to feed water to the mill building at the rear of the mansion. It forms part of the farm complex and is mentioned in deeds dating back to 1330. In those days fish from the pond provided an income of 10 pence per annum. It may have served the dual function as mill pond and garden feature up until the late 18th or early 19th century when it was landscaped by the Ferrands as shown on an estate map of 1807. For much of the 20th century, the pond was part of the Bingley water supply system.

Boat House

As we walk along the main pathway that leads along the south side of Coppice Pond, we come to a rectangular indentation; about 2.5 metres wide and extending towards the path. This is the site of an old boat house that was probably there as early as 1807. Old pictures show a stone built structure with a pitched stone roof, having two stone crosses, one at each gable end. The gables also had strange looking crenelations made from vertical flag stones. The boat house was demolished in the mid 20th century. Horsfall Turner's book, 'Ancient Bingley' has an early photograph of the structure.

Water Mill

A mill has been recorded on this site since the early 14th century and as such appears to be the building of greatest antiquity on St Ives. Although the mill machinery is missing, the wheel pit, leat, exit and external walls can still be seen. It may have been one of the three fulling mills Rievaulx owned on the Grange at the time of the dissolution during the mid-sixteenth century. The outlet from the wheel pit passes under the road and appears in a narrow stone built culvert.

The visible masonry above ground level dates from the mid-eighteenth century, but there is no doubt that it sits on the remains of a far older structure, possibly visible in the wheel pit.

Baxter’s Pond

This small pond is fed by water from the mill at its eastern end and by a stream coming down the hill from Coppice Pond at its western end. At its greatest extent it is 18m long by 6m wide and is less than 1m deep. This pond is early 19th century and was restored in 2003. It is dedicated to John Baxter in recognition of forty years work for CBMDC on the estate. The pond is accessible to the public and has proved to be a popular feature. The stream from Coppice Pond has some attractive cascades that were added during the recent restoration work.

Streams & ornamental ponds

First let us look at where the water comes from. After observation of the surviving culverts and layout of the gardens it seems that the water features not supplied by Coppice Pond were filled from the kidney-shaped ornamental pond 39m × 16m (colloquially called the Cray Fish Pond) in the grounds of the Golf Club House. This is not visible from areas open to the public. This pond fed water to the round ornamental pool and fountain.

The Round Pond

This pond had a central fountain and was 13m in diameter. The fountain ceased to work some years ago, and the pond has since been filled in. The Round Pond was situated within the lawns of the mansion gardens; now part of the nursing home grounds. Water from the Round Pond supplied, via cast iron pipes and drains, two further ponds. These are both in Cuckoo Nest Wood; to the south of the mansion.

The Upper Pond

The feature was created beneath an over-hanging crag of millstone grit (height 4.5m approx) from which water cascaded over into a large curving pool some 1m in depth. The cascade apparently fell over the large rock face, creating a hollow/cave in the base of the crag. The remains of a curving pond frontage is still visible. The pool is also roughly kidney-shaped, and measures 19.6m long by 8.5m wide at its greatest extent. At the southern edge there is a rectangular structure carrying an iron pipe and overflow.

This pond is now dry and trees have been allowed to grow in the build up of sediment in the bottom of the dry pool. This upper pond of the water gardens is only now reached with difficulty, the once linking pathway lost to the encroachment of vegetation. To the south west of the pond, there are paths and associated viewing platforms, from which features of the garden were once observed. One of these, now almost lost under vegetation, passes through an area planted with daffodils. These still flower in spring and were probably planted during the early 19th century.

The Lower Pool

Immediately below the Upper Pool is a much larger pool 103m long × 13m wide sometimes called the Lower Pool and accessible to the public via pathways that run through the woods. The cascade from the Upper Pool created in naturalistic form from local stone is now overgrown and acts as a natural seepage route down the hillside. The pool appears to have been quite deep in places, the current water level overlaying what is likely to be a considerable depth of sediment from which a plethora of plants have now grown. This pond was also fed by an underground culvert bringing water from Baxter's Pond.

The future

The Friends of St Ives would one day like to see the water gardens restored to their former glory. However, we have to acknowledge that the cost of the work would be very high.