A hidden emerald gem in the Surrey Hills. Lush, verdant beauty of the Hammer-pond at Friday Street, Surrey, in panorama.
Commentary.
A lush, verdant, emerald jewel in the heart of the Surrey Hills.
Such is Friday Street.
Tucked away in one of several valleys on the back-slope of Leith Hill, spring-sourced tributaries tumble northwards to converge at Abinger Hammer to form the delightful River Tillingbourne.
At Shalford, near Guildford, this river joins the Wey.
The lake is a “hammer-pond,” so called because iron-ore
found in the Greensand strata below was smelted in forges
to make tools, weapons and cannon-balls in medieval times.
The stream was dammed here and the fall of water from it
powered hammers that transformed the smelted iron.
Greater quantities of higher quality ore in northern England
superseded this source and soon its only evidence
was as nodules in the mortar of local cottages, to strengthen the fabric.
Now these ponds are so integral to the landscape, flora and fauna that they seem a totally natural and exquisitely beautiful
feature of the Surrey Hills.
A hidden emerald gem in the Surrey Hills. Lush, verdant beauty of the Hammer-pond at Friday Street, Surrey, in panorama.
Commentary.
A lush, verdant, emerald jewel in the heart of the Surrey Hills.
Such is Friday Street.
Tucked away in one of several valleys on the back-slope of Leith Hill, spring-sourced tributaries tumble northwards to converge at Abinger Hammer to form the delightful River Tillingbourne.
At Shalford, near Guildford, this river joins the Wey.
The lake is a “hammer-pond,” so called because iron-ore
found in the Greensand strata below was smelted in forges
to make tools, weapons and cannon-balls in medieval times.
The stream was dammed here and the fall of water from it
powered hammers that transformed the smelted iron.
Greater quantities of higher quality ore in northern England
superseded this source and soon its only evidence
was as nodules in the mortar of local cottages, to strengthen the fabric.
Now these ponds are so integral to the landscape, flora and fauna that they seem a totally natural and exquisitely beautiful
feature of the Surrey Hills.