Slipper Mill Pond Preservation Association
Registered Charity No:277744

Pond Basin

Looking South from the A259	Looking North from footbridge

The mouth of the River Ems lies in the soft marine and river alluvium flanked by brick-earth banks overlying the Reading Beds. {See East Solent Shoreline Coastal Management Plan -  Shoreline Management - Geology and the SCOPAC Web site for more details )

The pond was formed by enclosing the river with a bund and providing tidal flap gates to contain the tide in about 1760 and was used to power Slipper Mill. The banks and gates are still fully functional even though the Mill has been demolished and only its store is now housing.

It is very likely that the original banks were made by infilling the space between two timber palisades with brick-earth from the excavations for the adjacent Hendy's Wharf (now King's Quay).  This was the form of construction still showing in the photo of the South Bank dating from the 1920s and still evident today in places where the original planks have been repaired with concrete.

South wall about 1920	Inside face - South Wall before repair - 2003	West Bank Outer face showing posts

Over the years the banks have been repaired and patched, and today the majority of the South and West banks have been reinforced with gabions (rock-filled wire cages).

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