East Blatchington Pond

1. Introduction

Dedicated to the restoration, conservation and preservation of Blatchington Pond in the East Blatchington Conservation Area of Seaford

History

The earliest known record of the pond comes from the parish register of 1645, which notes that a servant girl named Sarah Reynolds was drowned there; apparently having committed suicide. At this time, and for centuries to come, the pond must have been a focal point for village life, providing water for livestock and humans alike, and in the 18th and 19th centuries it would have provided a welcome drink for the flocks of sheep being driven between downland grazing and market along the drove road (Sutton Drove), also to winter pasturage at Robertsbridge some 27 miles away.
It seems that there were in fact two ponds here until at least the beginning of the 20th century, the second one, the Lily Pond, lying on the other side of the road on the site of what is now the Elm Court Centre. Both were fed by little streams, the Lynn Brook and the Dane River, which have now disappeared.
In the 1930s an exceptionally dry summer is said to have dried the pond out completely and this probably caused the clay lining to crack. After that time water only collected for limited periods during very wet weather and the site became silted up.