Box People and Places
Latest Issue 47 Spring 2025 
  • This Issue
    • Millers of Box
    • Vezey Wall
    • Jesse Smith
    • Pauline Gibbons' Story
    • Great Quarry Trade
    • Rose, Rustic and Undercliffe
    • Kate Bull
    • Very Long Day
    • Roman Roads
    • Where Is This?
    • Who Are We?
    • Times Past
    • Recalling Mill Lane Halt
    • Wolf Hall
    • Canoeing and Caving
    • Dirty Arch Myth
    • Brook Northey Children
  • Previous
    • Issue 46 - Box Hill
    • Issue 45 - Moleyns Lordship
    • Issue 44 - Viking Hazelbury
    • Issue 43 - Late Medieval
    • Issue 42 - Beautiful Box
    • Issue 41 - Becket Plays
    • Issue 40 - Selwyn Hall
    • Issues 30-39 >
      • Issue 39 - Modern Box
      • Issue 38 - Railway Workers
      • Issue 37 - Mill Lane Halt
      • Issue 36 - Box Rec
      • Issue 35 - Inter war
      • Issue 34 - Fogleigh House
      • Issue 33 - KIngsdown Post Office
      • Issue 32 - Chapel Lane
      • Issue 31 - Saxon Box
      • Issue 30 - Georgian Rudloe
    • Issues 20-29 >
      • Issue 29 - Darkest Hour
      • Issue 28 - VE Day
      • Issue 27 - Northey
      • Issue 26 - Heritage Trail
      • Issue 25 - Slave Owners
      • Issue 24 - Highwaymen
      • Issue 23 - Georgian
      • Issue 22 - War Memorial
      • Issue 21 - Childhood 1949-59
      • Issue 20 - Box Home Guard
    • Issues 10-19 >
      • Issue 19 - Outbreak WW2
      • Issue 18 - Building Bargates
      • Issue 17 - Railway Changes
      • Issue 16 - Quarries
      • Issue 15 - Rail & Quarry
      • Issue 14 - Civil War
      • Issue 13: Box Revels
      • Issue 12 - Where You Live
      • Issue 11 - Tudor & Stuart
      • Issue 10 - End of Era 1912
    • Issues 1-9 >
      • Issue 9 - Health & Leisure
      • Issue 8 - Farming & Rural
      • Issue 7 - Manufacturing
      • Issue 6 - Celebrations
      • Issue 5 - Victorian Centre
      • Issue 4 - Slump after WW1
      • Issue 3 - Great War 1914-18
      • Issue 2 - 1950s & 1960s
      • Issue 1 - 1920s
    • Index By Author
    • Partner Sites & Book Reviews
    • Currency Converter
  • People
  • Places
  • General
  • FULL Series
  • Contact
    • Blog
    • Q&A
Big Pool Commemorations                                  Various      July 2023
Picture
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!
Picture
Picture
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.
Picture
Big Pool Lane recorded in 1921-43 Ordnance Survey (courtesy Know Your Past)
Picture
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.
Back to Issue 41