Pretty ponds, which have been at the heart of English villages for centuries, are quickly drying up after weeks of hot weather and exceptional 40C temperatures. The parched ponds have turned into bowls of dust following days of blazing temperatures and hardly any rain.
Ducks and fish are struggling to survive in the dirt after much of the country was pushed into “prolonged dry weather” status, the first of four drought categories, due to the dry spring and early summer. The No Fishing sign in the pond in the village of Ashtead in Surrey now stands in an expanse of mud after most of the water disappeared. Water has also completely drained from the pond in Chipstead, Surrey. The pond in the Cambridgeshire village of Barton has turned to dust, as well as the pond in the Norfolk village of Stanhoe.
Duck ponds go back as far as Anglo-Saxon times and for many centuries provided a water supply for the residents of the village. England saw its hottest day ever on July 19 as temperatures soared over 40C and The Met Office issued a red extreme heat warning, The Met Office recently announced that July has been the driest in England since 1911 with only 15.8mm of rain averaged up to July 26, only 24 per cent of the amount expected in an average July.
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