New Swimming Pond, Shropshire

Following our success at Ross-on-Wye, we were engaged by this client to create a new swimming pond for him in Shropshire, just south of Shrewsbury. As Mark lives not far away, our service of regular visits when commuting by worked well for this client who project managed, along with other property renovations.

The brief was a pond just long enough to swim lengths, with tumble-turn walls, yet wide enough so the children could ‘play’ in the middle. We settled on a ‘london underground sign inspired shape – block-work tumble-turn walls with a natural circle in the middle, all set within a natural shape.

The far bank of the pond ultimately will blend into the wider orchard garden, aided with wildflower meadow seed, whilst the foreground side has now been designed into outdoor living spaces – an expansive patio linking into the house, with paths from the children’s bedrooms to the middle via stepping-stone paths.

The clients’ groundworkers dug the pond and created the shape ready for our lining. The lining started dry, but overnight rain turned our liner in a re-creation of the battle of the Somme. Thankfully it was watertight, and later washing and cleaning removed the mud. A delivery of aggregate plus water from a nearby farmers’ pond quickly saw everything come to ‘full’.

Finally, the first phase of late-season aquatic plants has now been planted and the pond can settle in for the winter. We look forward to returning Spring ’25 to add the final plants, and then see how this project matures.