Big Pool Commemorations Various July 2023
Revealing the pond at Big Pool
Big Pool Restored 2000 Brian Downs, Photos courtesy Annie Rose July 2023
I read your article about drove roads and Big Pool with interest. As part of the millennium activities in 2000, a group of Kingsdown residents cleared the area around Big Pool and a seat was placed close by. Unfortunately, the seat was stolen and the area around the pool has again overgrown but it does still exist, although the use of the word big might be a bit of an exaggeration!
I read your article about drove roads and Big Pool with interest. As part of the millennium activities in 2000, a group of Kingsdown residents cleared the area around Big Pool and a seat was placed close by. Unfortunately, the seat was stolen and the area around the pool has again overgrown but it does still exist, although the use of the word big might be a bit of an exaggeration!
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Cutting back the foliage and restoring the flow of the stream
I was talking to a neighbour about your article and they informed me that it is still possible to see it even in the summer.
I checked it out to confirm and, if you start down the path through the wood and then turn left along a level track, you will get to the bottom end of the pool. There is still water visible but it is not very deep.
I checked it out to confirm and, if you start down the path through the wood and then turn left along a level track, you will get to the bottom end of the pool. There is still water visible but it is not very deep.
Big Pool Lane recorded in 1921-43 Ordnance Survey (courtesy Know Your Past)
Big Pool restored as part of the Milennium celebrations in 2000
Impromptu Fairground Les Dancey July 2023
Your item on the drove paths brought to mind an event in Box in the 1940s when I was young, probably less than ten. It was at the path that leads straight on from The Ley road as it turns 90 degrees right by where Bull and Brickell's Ice-Cream factory was. If I remember correctly, there is a gate where the woods become fields and just below the path on the right-hand side. Back from that gate the older village youths had built a row of sideshows with darts to throw at playing cards and hoop-la, just as you see at a fair ground. They had weaved them out the abundant nut sticks that grow/grew along there. They had made a really good job of it. It was brilliant! Someone else might remember it better. I cannot remember if there were any prizes.