The Pond

Norton Common - 1640
Note the Ems flowing from top tp bottom
and the road to Chichester from left to right

Thanks to Chichester Records Office

Slipper Mill Pond is shown in early records as Norton Common, belonging to the Manor of Stansted and being an open space with the River Ems in the middle.

The "Lord's Mill", in the vicinity of the pond, was the first of the Emsworth mills to be operational, drawing its power by diverting the Ems with a leat (channel supplying a mill) starting at "Constant Springs" just below Lumley Mill. It was widened for its last 400 metres above the mill to form a linear pond. Its outfall continued on to the sea, probably to the West of the present course of Dolphin Creek. This could be the reason for the original County Boundary being located on land rather than using the bed of an existing water course. [This boundary was repositioned at the request of the residents of King's Quay the 1980's as part of their resolution of title issues.]

The first Slipper Mill was built in the 1760's by Thomas Hendy as part of his industrial developments at the mouth of the River Ems. Norton Common was enclosed and it is possible that construction was made easier by avoiding diverting the Ems from its track along the then county boundary until the end of the works. It is probable that excavation of the current bed of the Ems provided much of the fill needed for the quay and slips and the bank for the pond at the same time.

Stakes Bridge (thanks to Tony Yoward)

The main Chichester to Portsmouth road used to cross the pond by a tide wade-way marked by stakes with a bridge to cross the stream bed. No doubt those gave rise to the name "Stakes Pond" and "Stakes Bridge".

(Possibly Dolphin Hill was renamed Queen Street after she passed through Emsworth?)

By the middle of the 19^th Century the tide-driven Slipper Mill together with the Quay tide mill was part of a complex of four working mills in Emsworth. Later, the area north of Hendy’s Quay was the site of a sawmill, boatyard and slipway, where J.D. Foster built the famous Emsworth Oyster fishing fleet.

In 1867 a fifth mill, New Slipper Mill, was built to the South, but the tidal millrace, located by the gap in the marina’s north wall, never worked effectively so a steam engine was planned. In1886 this mill was destroyed by fire before it became operational and its pond, (known locally as Big Bunny) was used for seasoning timber for Foster’s Yard.

1930's aerial photo showing South end of the pond, Slipper Mill and the industrial area on King's Quay.


1946 Aerial Photo	1965 Aerial Photo - showing the Big Bunny before it became Emsworth Marina

In the late 1960s the pond was dredged and the steam engine's chimney removed during the construction of the marina. The Kings Quay housing estate was built on the now disused industrial land,

In the 1970s and 80s the residents and the developer of Roundhouse Meadow created the paved Slipper Road as we know it today from the East shore of the pond and in the 1990s the old garage and workshops on Chequer's Quay were redeveloped.

In 1988 the Emsworth Inner By-pass was opened and through traffic no longer used Queen Street and the centre of the village.

The pond now forms part of the East branch of the River Ems and is classified by the Environment Agency as a "Main River", as is the West branch.