Abbots Pool

A few days before the January Working Party a tree fell over the track taking with it several other trees. Luckily the team were on hand to cut off branches which were blocking the track so that horses, bikes, pushchairs etc. were able to get through. Some of the cherry laurels which are starting to sprout were cut off and some of the children did a litter pick.

The next Working Party will be on Sunday 12^thFebruary from 10 till 12. We will deal with such problems as fallen trees and attempt to get rid of the Lonicera which is either side of the steps up to the higher part of the woodland, so wear suitable clothes and bring any tools you may have for these tasks.

Di Stewart

Abbots Leigh Wildlife Group

Updates and ways to get involved this month:

Winter pond care - with winter not quite over yet, you may ask what you can do to look after your pond to help the wildlife that lives there survive
Toads on Roads - would like to encourage people in the village to collect their small change to help toads during the spring 2012 migration as part of the Tuppence a Toad and Toads on Roads project. There is a collecting jar in the village hall for donations. Thanks
Toad Patrol Volunteers - a small group of volunteers goes out on suitable mild, damp evenings to patrol Weir Lane/Manor Road for amphibians. Do get in touch if you would like to be involved too.

Big Spawn Count - to help Pond Conservation find out more about the breeding success of our common frogs and toads, please join in this easy survey.
Winter Thrushes - In late 2012 the BTO will be launching the Wintering Thrushes Survey which will help understand a lot more about how thrushes use our countryside. You can help now by adding your observations
Tree survey. Can you help? NSC has recently relaunched the Village Tree Warden Initiative, offering training to volunteers. One activity that has been suggested is to note some of the lovely specimens in the village. If you have or know of a special tree, do please contact us with details or add a note to the map in the Village Hall. Thanks.

ALWG website

Tom Walmsley, Karin Rhodes and Sarah Pitt

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

Photo Slide Show

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.