Arundel Mill's pond

After a busy day and a meeting with the editor of one of the two local papers, I drove home. But on a whim I made a right turn, parked and walked down to the canal and river close to Capel's Mill viaduct. I think I just wanted a bit of quiet, relatively peaceful time watching the water and wildlife.

It only took a couple of minutes to walk along the newly restored towpath which runs between the canal and the river Frome. I walked upstream towards Arundel Mill's old mill pond to see how much had been altered by the various volunteer groups who had been improving the canalside areas. In fact the land they cleared beside the pond has now been covered by the regrowth of all the weeds.

Arundel Mill no longer exists and the few associated buildings on the north bank of the pond were restored by the Stroud Preservation Trust some while ago, before my time as a trustee. I walked a few yards away from the towpath down to where the old millpond has now silted up. The pond drains through a sluice gate and over the remains of the old mill race when the river is in flood. As I stood there taking a couple of pictures of the reflections, a man stood in the river where it flows into the pond, to the far left of my picture, trying to use a fallen tree branch to retrieve his son's football. I think they live in the rescued cottage buildings we sold to them. You can read about the history of the restoration of those buildings and see some old pictures on our website here.

In recent times when I have come to visit the canal Ive been intent on my ongoing quest to spot and film the kingfishers, but I haven't seen them at all this year and have been very worried that they are in decline. This time it hadn't crossed my mind, so when a kingfisher flew out of the trees lining the bank a few yards to the left of this picture I couldn't help but smile. It was good to remind myself that they will appear in their own good time.