Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Soil questions Pond under construction with pics. Advice needed!

Hi i've joined this forum as we are in the process of building a pond on our field. Its probably not very big by the standards on here, but its alot bigger and different to what we have done before!

We live in Somerset, England on the flood plains of a local river. It is a low lying area and we are hoping we can dig the pond deep enough so it will hold water all year around just filling from the water table. Normally we have had ponds before that we have lined so we are in new territory here and just wondering if anyone had any advice or tips for us while we are in the process of building?

We have done some digging and the water table seems to be about 4ft below the surface at the moment but it has been dry lately so it may rise somewhat if we get some wet weather?
So we are thinking of going down to a max depth of 10ft in the middle of the pond, which would be 6ft below the current water level? with a path area around the pond 2ft below the land level then 2ft down to the water level. The dimensions of the pond area which will be dropped by 2ft should be around 60ft x 45ft with the pond maybe around 40ft x 30ft in the middle of this..... not sure if all that makes sense but i will add pictures which may help!?

I'm not sure if it might be easier to line the pond but my dad is keen on seeing how it works out using the water table and maybe line it in the future if it doesent hold water well?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

Welcome to the forum! I like the pictures, you're off to a good start!

I have a water table pond. The biggest thing to remember is "What Mother Nature giveth, she will taketh away"

In the Spring of the year, I can hit water at one meter. In the Spring my pond is overflowing. Normally, by this time of the year it is 1.2 to 2 meters low. I had dug my pond to roughly 7 meters deep, and right after it was completed, we had between 30 and 31 CM of rain in less than 2 days and I had slightly more than a meters worth of sand wash into my pond.

If you plan to possibly line the pond in the future, I would ensure that all the rocks are removed now, while it is under construction. That might make it easier to line if it's required sometime in the future.