Monument record COM 007 - Combs Hall Garden

Earthwork of medieval fish pond in grassland to the NW of St Mary's church. The earthwork is a regular rectangular depression in the valley bottom adjacent to the stream flowing NE, with its long axis along the valley bottom. Its dimensions are circa 120m x 70m (paced and measured from map). Its depth varies from circa 2m on the SE to 1m on the NW. The pond is dammed by an earth bank circa 18m wide and 1.5m high which is separated from the pond by a berm circa 11m wide. The inlet passage is not discernible, the outlet may have been in the N corner. The SE side has been obscured by earth and rubble dumped along its whole length early in 1984, but it is probable no damage was done to the original bank.
Another possible pond further SW and upstream was bulldozed flat by the farmer in early 1984.
Found during course of pasture survey (S1).
Mid Suffolk DC. Gipping Valley warden, after consultation with us, arranged to clear accumulated silting in the pond at the E corner of the pond to encourage newts etc. 1.8m of sterile blue clay silt removed in an area circa 10 x 15m, pond base revealed as coarse gravelly boulder clay. Silt dumped thinly along the E edge which has already been masked by dumping (S2). Shown as a formal rectangular pond on a 1741 map of Combs Hall and its large formal garden (S3)(S4). An earlier map of 1710 shows no pond but names the field as Reed Pond Meadow (S5). See also Combs 009.
For updated survey see (S6).