Tucking Mill Reservoir Visitor information

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s Toilets for disabled visitors only – accessible with RADAR key.

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N i An emergency telephone is available in the toilet facilities. D Ho r s e c o m b e Va l e

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Lake (No public access: Prior y Wood lake reserved for disabled anglers)

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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 On the following pages, find out more Tucking Mill Beefly Bats Horsecombe Site Industrial 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 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, & 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 (the Colliers Way) from Dundas • swimming in the lake is strictly prohibited; remember Aqueduct (Kennet and Canal) towards . 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 and has only recently been some hazel, spindle and recorded in 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 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 . 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 , 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 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 . 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. The viaduct 1811-1812, but were Tucking Mill’s out of use by 1820. involvement with The present public footpath closely follows the line of the water supply dates tramway and stone sleepers (square stone blocks drilled to hold back to the a pin which secured the track) can still be seen. Victorian period. As if road and rail were not enough, the filled in course of the Water from the Somersetshire Coal Canal runs alongside the lane at the spring sources has entrance gates to the site. The canal was built to allow coal from been collected since the Mendip coalfields to reach Bath and and its 1881, originally by a construction was partially supervised by William Smith who waterwheel pump The original Tucking Mill used it to transport products from the works at Tucking Mill. Tucking Mill Reservoir Geology William Smith and the birth of geology

In 1798 the site was bought principles on which the modern science by William Smith, who is of geology is based. He realised that often known as the father of fossils can be used to identify rock layers English geology as he and that there was a regular order in the collated the geological history layers of rock which could be recognised of and into a single record. at different places miles apart – these In 1793 William Smith was taken on by observations were published in the Table the Somersetshire Coal Canal Company of Strata near Bath and in 1799 he to survey and level the route of the canal coloured in the geological features on a and, by 1795, Smith was helping to map of the area, creating one of the supervise the excavation of the canal. In oldest geological maps in existence. 1798, Smith bought a “small but beautiful estate” at Tucking Mill which was to be In later years, Smith was able to travel his home for the next 20 years. the country gathering observations, culminating in his famous geological map During this period, the observations of England and Wales published in 1815.

Smith made in the coal mines, quarries In 1810 he even restored the flow of William Smith and canal diggings, together with the water in the hot springs which fed the fossils he collected from excavations, led baths and Pump Room in Bath. him to propose the fundamental

Exploring the geology of Tucking Mill

Several geological exposures the Midford Sands beneath. In the first are present around the site Coral imprints in Tucking Mill Wood quarry the limestone is rich in fossils and where you can view the its horizontal layers are clearly displayed. rock layers which are part of However, all the exposures in Tucking Mill the site’s importance. If you Wood show some disturbance. This is follow the steps up from the lake to the due to mass movement of the rocks former railway cutting, you will find a downhill as the frozen ground became cleared exposure which reveals unstable when the top surface melted horizontal beds of limestone resting on during the summer months of the soft sandstone. The loosely cemented permafrost conditions of the last ice age. grains of silt and sand of the Midford Even today the area remains important Sands layer underlie the hard Inferior for geology – Tucking Mill is the type Oolite limestone which contains many locality for Midford Sands while fossils. In the lowest layers, thick shelled Horsecombe Vale is also the type locality bi-valves (especially Trigonia, found today towards a distant past, 170 million years for Fuller’s Earth. The type locality is a in the Pacific) can be seen together with ago, when each rock layer must have location chosen to be a baseline standard ammonites, brachiopods and gastropod been the floor of a coral sea. against which other areas with the same shells. The upper layers of limestone rock units can be compared, nationally contain quite different fossils, including In Tucking Mill Wood two quarries and internationally. mounds of fossilised coral, and point expose Inferior Oolite limestones and

Exposure east of steps, Midford Sands Trigonia fossil in Oolitic limestone Former quarry – Tucking Mill Wood Lower Oolitic imestone