Straiton Pond Nature Reserve

Like an oasis for nature in an ever-encroaching sea of traffic, retail and housing, Straiton Pond is the remnant from a century of supplying blue clay to the local brickworks, closing in the 1950's*.

Now a Local Nature Reserve, it has a variety of habitats supporting many species. We took a stroll there before grocery shopping just a few hundred yards away.

*Edit: Further research on old maps suggests that the text above in italics is erroneous and, although there is much industry close by, the actual pond area was not involved: not as claypit, sandpit or shale, nor, indeed, limestone, all of which were noted nearby. In the 1940's two reservoirs were sited there, presumably to serve railway sidings of the line to the oil works.
The mystery continues!