Abbots Pool
    

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Abbots Pool

Green FlagEarly in June we had the visit by the Green Flag judges. It happened to be the only wet day of the week but still the pool and woodland looked great. So we are crossing our fingers that we get our fourth Green Flag. The volunteers had gone round the area the night before to pick up any rubbish after the Bank Holiday weekend. On Sunday the 13th June the working party clipped back lots of overhanging branches and removed a large amount of fishing line. This is such a hazard to small birds. We also cleared debris from the cascade and picked up litter. A large branch had fallen onto the Car Park and this was chopped up and disposed of. The rhododendrons are looking lovely reflected in the pool. We hope to have an afternoon in the autumn when a new nesting raft will be put in place so that birds can get used to it being there before the 2010 nesting season, so watch out for the date in the next Link.

There will be a Bat Walk on Tuesday 24th August at 7.45 p.m. Meet in the Car Park beforehand. Please put this date in your diary now as there won’t be another reminder. It will be led by the vice chair of the Avon Bat Group, David Brown. There is no charge but it would be appreciated if people could donate at least £1 per adult. Please wear dark clothing and sensible shoes as we may be on uneven paths and inclines. Remember that it may be chilly later in the evening. Bring a torch but don’t bring dogs. Parents must remember that their children are their responsibility at all times. The Avon Bat Group will provide equipment to listen to the bats’ calls and help to identify them. If you have your own monitor please bring it. We do hope that lots of you will come along - an opportunity like this doesn’t happen every year!
Di Stewart






The Abbots Pool Protection Project has scooped a national award. It is one of only twelve winners out of over two hundred applicants across Avon and Somerset to win support from the national Community Cashback Scheme. As reported in last month’s Link the grant will pay for the installation of two bollards in the track leading to the Car Park and for two benches to replace those vandalised recently. The work will be carried out by North Somerset Council in the next few months. The Community Cashback Scheme is administered locally by the Avon and Somerset Criminal Justice Board. See their website for more details – www.lcjb.cjsonline.gov.uk/avonandsomerset

Abbots Pool

The word 'Leigh' comes from Old English 'Leah' being a clearing in a wooded settlement. Abbots Leigh was specifically the retreat of the Abbot of St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol, where now stands the Cathedral (Church). The actual retreat or settlement site is unknown. Abbots Pool would have been created by damming the brook. It was probably done for the Abbot as a fishpond, stocking fresh fish for the pot. During the 1930's Melville Wills landscaped the pool area. He created an Island (on stilts) and the cave. This beauty spot is now under the care of North Somerset Council

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James Pulham, Pulhamite, and Abbots Pool

In the history of landscape gardening the name of James Pulham (1788-c.1838) is well known. He is the father of a dynasty that manufactured architectural ornaments out of artificial stone and laid out rock gardens utilising this artificial 'Pulhamite' to simulate natural rock strata and other geological features.

Work by the firm using 'Pulhamite' has been identified at Abbots Pool by Sally Festing and described in the Journal of the Garden History Society (Spring 1984).

Between 1819 and 1822 James Pulham began using stone -coloured cement to form ornamental garden vases, fountains, animal figures, busts, coats of arms, insignia for public bodies, hotel signs and chimney pots etc. at his factory in Spitalfields. When Pulham (I) died his eldest son James (II) (1820-98) took over the business that by then was a wide range of artificial stonework including floorings and wall-coatings. It was at this time that a move had been made to Hoddesden in Hertfordshire and that simulating natural materials became a prominent part of the firm's activities.

James Pulham II's son, yet another James (III) (1845-?), joined the firm to make it Pulham & Son in 1865 and stopped making their own cement on the premises and used Portland cement instead. Their artificial stone, or 'terracotta ' as they had called it became known henceforth as 'Pulhamite Stone'.

It was also at this time when the firm gave up making ornamental architectural work and concentrated on garden and landscape work and produced sundials, statues, fountains, balustrades, gardens seats and bridges etc tailor-made for the customer. In addition, gardens were provided with 'Pulhamite' pools, cascades, steam-courses and caves constructed in such a way as to resemble natural features.

After the death of James Pulham II the firm was run by his son (III) and grandson, James Robert. Three of the third James' younger brothers joined the family business. A slump in World War One led to debts from which the business never recovered forcing it to close in 1945.

Many ‘Pulhamite’ gardens have been identified in the southern half of England and these include Battersea Park (1866-70) for HM Commissioners of Works; Sandringham (1868-76) and Buckingham Palace (1895-99) for the Royal Family, St James' Park (1895-99) for the Royal Parks Bailiff and Rayne Thatch (1907-10) and Bracken Hill (c.1917-27) both for the Bristol tobacco magnate Melville Wills.

Sally Festing has included Abbots Pool, another of Melville Wills estates on the outskirts of Bristol, in her list of sixteen Pulham & Son landscapes. Melville Wills bought the property in 1915 and the work at Abbots Pool was carried out sometime between that date and the demise of Pulham & Son in 1945.

The landscaping carried out by the firm at the pool has yet to be closely examined but at first appearances Pulhamite has been used to construct the cascade, the boathouse-cum-cave and some of the edging of the pool and the stream below the cascade. The slabs of Pulhamite forming the cascade and boathouse have been laid in such a way to resemble the bedding of natural rock and the natural effect has been enhanced by the inclusion of slabs of natural rock.

Sally Festing records that in the Markham Brook below the Abbots Pool there is 'an extended sequence of small trout pools separated by cascades' constructed from Pulhamite.


References Anon. 2001. Members' Letters, Contributions. Garden History News. 63.26.
Festing, S. 1984. 'Pulham has done his work well'. Garden History Society Journal. 25. 138-158.
Hitching, C. 2001. Preserving Our Pulham Heritage. Garden History Society News. 62 23-24.
North Somerset Council had a page now defunct giving the above details.




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