After dredging the pond in September 2022 the water level slowly started to rise, and as the ducks started to return, the next focus was to start planning and costing some new duck houses with a floating island, to replace the island and dead Willow tree that was removed during the dredging project. Toward the […]
September 2022 – Another huge job begins at Hanley Swan Pond
With the pond losing most of its water during the summer plans were well advanced to attempt the removal of the silt build-up sitting on top of the pond’s clay base. There were many complexities to coordinate such as machinery insurance, volunteers to keep the public safe and more importantly the availability of Francis Harcombe’s […]
In 2021 the pond floods then in 2022 the pond dried up!
After a challenging 2020 and 2021 due to Covid not much could be done at the village pond, so things had to be left until it was safe for people to start working together again. In 2021 there was plenty of rain which saw the pond overflow and flood the surrounding area for quite a […]
2018 and we see 2 men in a boat
The willow is always a job to tackle early in the year so out comes the petrol hedge cutters, shears and lots of raking by the team. Neil and Nick cracked on with this in early Spring with Neil pulling on his waders to cut the willow pond side, while Nick worked his way around […]
The Hanley Swan Community Project in action 2017
The Hanley Swan Pond Community Project was an inspiration and a huge success. The village of Hanley Swan came together in 2009 and kick-started the Hanley Swan Community. The driving inspiration was Neil Verlander who has lived in the village since 1988 with his wife Gigi Verlander. They worked tirelessly with help from other volunteers […]
May 2010 Hanley Swan Springs Into Action
Hanley Swan May 2010 and things around the village have certainly started to take shape. Neil manages to organise another day with Will Hall and the Community Pay Back Team who concentrated on bringing a good amount of top soil across from St Gabriel’s churchyard. Moving the soil was a win-win situation for all, as St Gabriel’s needed to […]