Tucking Mill Reservoir Visitor information y a w l KEY To Combe Down i a r Footpath Cycle route d e s Toilets for disabled visitors only – accessible with RADAR key. u Wheelchair platforms Parking for disabled anglers s N i An emergency telephone is available in the toilet facilities. D Ho r s e c o m b e Va l e No swimming No dogs No cycling No litter t c u d a i V Lake (No public access: Prior y Wood lake reserved for disabled anglers) 244 To Monkton Combe Please note that car parking is only available for disabled anglers. There is no car parking on site or parking facilities nearby for visitors. 24 To Midford On the following pages, find out more Tucking Mill Tucking Mill Beefly Bats Horsecombe Site Industrial Geology about: Wood Lake meadows Vale history history Tucking Mill is located approximately two miles south of Bath city centre, between the villages of Monkton Combe and Midford. Please note that car parking is only available for disabled anglers. There is no car parking on site or parking facilities nearby for visitors. This site can only be accessed by footpaths and cycle paths that run nearby. Public footpaths Code of conduct The site is close to the Limestone Link national trail and local For the safety and enjoyment of all, please follow our code footpaths linking the site to Bath, Monkton Combe, Midford and of conduct: Horsecombe Vale. • remember that the site is a public water supply • no dogs are allowed except on a public right of way and Ordnance survey maps then on a leash Landranger 172, Bristol & Bath • please keep to the public footpaths or • take care on sections of path which are steep or which Explorer 155, Bristol & Bath. may have uneven surfaces • cycling is not allowed on site; please keep to the cycle Cycle paths paths Just off National Cycle Route 24 (the Colliers Way) from Dundas • swimming in the lake is strictly prohibited; remember Aqueduct (Kennet and Avon Canal) towards Frome. The Two that the water is deep in places Tunnels Greenway Cyclepath (route 244) from central Bath • please keep children safe at all times travels over the viaduct above the site. • respect the wildlife and do not pick wildflowers • fishing and use of the lake is for disabled anglers only and anglers must have a permit and read the rules of the fishery before fishing. Tucking Mill Reservoir Nature which are considered to be of conservation significance – a Tucking Mill Wood remarkably high number for such a small site. This includes a Tucking Mill Wood is nationally significant population of a beefly, Villa cingulata, which dominated by mature was thought to have become extinct in Britain in 1938.This trees such as ash, field beefly, which has striking pale bands on the abdomen, is known maple, wych elm and from only one other site in Somerset and has only recently been some hazel, spindle and recorded in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. To prevent hawthorn. During May a rich disturbance and damage to these species, there is no public ground flora is in flower and access to these fields. includes dog's mercury, bluebell, ramsons (wild garlic) and yellow Bats archangel. The footpath through Tucking Mill is located the wood follows the line of the within an area of former tramway built by William national and European Smith to carry stone from his quarry at Kingham Wood down to importance for bat his saw mill. Stone sleepers (square stone species. Surveys have blocks drilled to hold a pin which secured recorded eight bat species using the the track) can still be seen in places. In site including common pipistrelle, the wood two quarries expose Inferior soprano pipistrelle, Daubenton’s, Brown long-eared bat Oolite limestones and the Midford Sands noctule, serotine, long-eared, greater beneath. The first quarry is the best and lesser horseshoe bats. While example of limestone rich in fossils and Wild garlic woodland forms a large portion of the its horizontal layers are clearly displayed. Greater horseshoe bat site, the bats are especially interested in the lake, which forms a key feeding area Tucking Mill Lake for several species, but particularly the Anglers share the lake with kingfishers, Daubenton’s. moorhen, coot, grey heron and The Daubenton’s is a medium sized bat little grebe and it has developed (between 4.5 and 5.5cm long) which a natural fringe of vegetation of takes insects from close to water common reed, pendulous sedge, surfaces using either their large feet or horsetail, coltsfoot, yellow iris tail membrane as a scoop. Flying at about and hemlock water dropwort. On a 15mph within a few centimetres of the summer's day, dragonflies can be seen water surface they are often reminiscent of a small hovercraft and were historically known as the water bat. In summer, around the lake guarding their territory and Grey heron looking for a mate. Daubenton’s form colonies in underground sites (such as caves, mines or cellars) or in holes in trees near to water before Beefly meadows moving towards winter hibernation in October in caves, mines or other underground sites. Moving out of the woodlands and walking up the steps to the Horsecombe Vale former railway line will eventually bring you past Horsecombe Vale and Priory meadows of important Woods have few very tall limestone grassland. These fields trees; instead they are have not been subject to agricultural dominated by hazel and were improvement by past farmers and so once traditionally managed as a plants formerly widespread have hazel coppice. The stems of this small tree Pyramidal orchid continued to flourish. In total, more than were cut to ground level regularly every 140 species of flowering plants have been seven to 15 years to provide poles for recorded in the fields, including species such as devil's-bit fencing, tool handles and firewood. scabious, common rockrose, Ancient woodland indicator species such wild thyme, quaking grass, as wood anemone, sweet woodruff and marjoram, pyramidal orchid, twayblade also grow here. You may see bird’s-foot trefoil, common Bath asparagus (also known as spiked spotted orchid and common star-of-Bethlehem) which is a nationally twayblade. These plants support scarce plant often found around the Bath asparagus a good range of butterflies in environs of Bath. Related to the bluebell, Bird’s-foot trefoil the summer, including the it has long strap-like leaves that emerge in grizzled skipper. the spring with greenish-white, star-shaped flowers on tall flower spikes that can reach one metre high. The meadows are particularly important for insects and other invertebrates. 413 species have been identified at the site, 43 of Tucking Mill Reservoir Industrial history Industrial history This quiet for transfer of water to rural location Combe Down. Bath belies a past Corporation ran the history of facility from 1954 until industrial use which has the formation of the shaped the valley. Wessex Water Authority in 1974, and it has Tucking Mill is named after subsequently been run by a process in the woollen Wessex Water since industry known as tucking 1991. Old Tucking Mill water works or fulling in which woven cloth was cleaned and In addition to the spring thickened. Pairs of massive sources, the treatment works is also able to abstract water 17th century ‘tucking’ or ‘fulling’ mill wooden blocks pounded from the River Avon in the event of a severe drought, before it Fuller’s Earth (a clay like is treated and transferred into the water distribution network. material) into the wool to produce a heavy felted cloth. This was done in a mill building which used to stand beside Tucking Mill cottage, but which had fallen into disuse by 1798 when the site was bought by William Smith. Following his purchase 19th century Fuller’s Earth works Smith created the original pond and surrounding woodland landscape and reconstructed the mill. This was put to use as Old Tucking Mill drying sheds a saw mill to cut stone into slabs for paving or Tucking Mill once enjoyed a closer connection to the roofing, primarily for surrounding world. Striding across the heart of the site, the the London market. eight arch viaduct which dominates the valley once carried the Smith brought railway line from Bath Green Park Station to Bournemouth – together stone from a the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The line north quarry he owned in from Evercreech Junction to Bath opened in 1874 and carried Kingham Wood nearby generations of holidaymakers from the Midlands to the south with a tramway to transport the stone to the mill and then coast before closure in 1966. onwards using the former canal which used to flow in front of On the north side of the mill and cottage. the lake lies the line Unfortunately the scheme failed, leaving Smith heavily in debt of the former and, following 10 weeks in a debtor's prison, he was eventually tramway built by forced to sell the cottage and leave the site. William Smith to carry stone from his The saw mill, together with settling ponds and a drying shed, quarry at Kingham was eventually used for processing Fuller’s Earth, which was Wood down to the mined at the top of Horsecombe Vale, taken to the former mill Somersetshire Coal for processing and then carried by rail for use in industry from Canal. The quarry Midford Station goods yard. The remains of the mill were and tramway were demolished in 1979 to allow the construction of the present constructed around lake.