Millers Pond is a small park in the Spring Park area of the

London Borough of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon () is a London borough in south London, part of Outer London. It covers an area of . It is the southernmost borough of London. At its centre is the historic town of Croydon from which the borough takes its name; ...

, England.Winterman, M.A. (1988). Millers Pond. . 57In: ''Croydon's Parks: An illustrated history''. London Borough of Croydon, Parks and Recreation Department: Croydon. + 118 pp. + 1 folded map. .

Description

Covering an area of some , Millers Pond includes a

duck pond A duck pond is a pond for ducks and other waterfowl. Duck ponds provide habitats for water fowl and other birds, who use the water to bathe in and drink. Typically, such ponds are round, oval or kidney-shaped. An example is the lily pond in th ...

and a green area with trees and flower beds that includes tables and benches. It is surrounded by residential housing and is bounded to the south by Shirley Way (where the main entrance is located) and to the west by The Lees, with additional access onto Worcester Close to the east and Farm Lane (off Bennetts Way) to the north. The pond features a number of timber structures around its perimeter, including a viewing platform, a dipping platform, and a boardwalk.The Park
Friends of Millers Pond. The larger of the pond's two islands has a duck platform. The park includes toilet facilities. Millers Pond is a

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

winner.

History

Millers Pond, London Borough of Croydon 02

Millers Pond was originally part of Spring Park Farm until its acquisition by

Croydon Council Croydon London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Croydon in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Croydon is divided into 28 wards, electing 70 co ...

in 1934.Millers Pond history

. The pond itself is the largest of three that originally existed on the site. Farm Lane now runs where the farm buildings stood; the two smaller ponds were subsequently developed. Millers Pond derives its name from the last family to work on Spring Park Farm. The ponds of Spring Park Farm were once fed by a stream that ran around three sides of Temple Avenue Copse (), a area of mixed woodland to the southwest.Winterman, M.A. (1988). Temple Avenue Copse. . 99In: ''Croydon's Parks: An illustrated history''. London Borough of Croydon, Parks and Recreation Department: Croydon. + 118 pp. + 1 folded map. . The rapid development of the area surrounding Spring Park in the first half of the 20th century can be seen in successive

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

maps:
Six inches to the mile, England and Wales: Kent XV (includes: Croydon St John the Baptist) – surveyed 1868; published 1871

Six inches to the mile, England and Wales: Surrey XIV.SE (includes: Beckenham; Croydon St John the Baptist) – revised 1894–1895; published 1898

25 inches to the mile, England and Wales: Surrey XIV.12 (Beckenham; Croydon St John the Baptist) – revised 1911; published 1912

25 inches to the mile, England and Wales: Surrey XIV.12 (Beckenham; Croydon St John the Baptist) – revised 1934; published 1935

25 inches to the mile, England and Wales: Surrey XIV.12 (Beckenham; Croydon St John the Baptist) – revised 1942; published 1947
When Spring Park House was put up for auction in July 1957, its of grounds were described as follows:

The lawns slope gradually away from the House to the south, with rhododendron and azalea bushes, to the Ornamental Lakes, Tennis Lawn and small Meadow. The boundaries are all well screened by matured trees and amongst several fine specimens are various cypress, chestnut and
elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of North ...
, a mulberry, a quince and one of the largest girth
oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...
trees in the country.

Millers Pond is managed by

in partnership with Friends of Millers Pond, a volunteer group of local residents formed in 1998 to represent the users of the park and monitor proposed changes.Welcome to Friends of Millers Pond
Friends of Millers Pond.About
Friends of Millers Pond.

Wildlife

Species of

wildfowl The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating on ...

commonly seen in the pond include mallards,

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), or Canadian goose, is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is o ...

coot Coots are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family, Rallidae. They constitute the genus ''Fulica'', the name being the Latin term for "coot". Coots have predominantly black plumage, and—unlike many rails—they are usually ...

s, and

moorhen Moorhens—sometimes called marsh hens—are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family (Rallidae). Most species are placed in the genus ''Gallinula'', Latin for "little hen". They are close relatives of coots. They are of ...

s.The Pond
Friends of Millers Pond.
Croydon Ducks. Occasional visitors include greylag geese, Egyptian geese, bean geese,

Muscovy duck The Muscovy duck (''Cairina moschata'') is a large duck native to the Americas, from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Mexico south to Argentina and Uruguay. Small wild and feral breeding populations have established themselves in the United St ...

tufted duck The tufted duck or tufted pochard (''Aythya fuligula'') is a small diving duck with a population of close to one million birds, found in northern Eurasia. The scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek '' aithuia'', an unidentified seabird ment ...

s, mute swans, herons, cormorants, and even

mandarin duck The mandarin duck (''Aix galericulata'') is a perching duck species native to the East Palearctic. It is medium-sized, at long with a wingspan. It is closely related to the North American wood duck, the only other member of the genus ''Aix'' ...

s.''London Bird Report 2016''

London Natural History Society The London Natural History Society (or LNHS as it is commonly known) is a local natural history society within the UK concerned with recording the wildlife of London, covering a circular area covering a 20-mile radius from St. Paul's Cathedral. T ...

. Feral parakeets and various

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

s also commonly visit the park. The pond hosts

terrapin Terrapins are one of several small species of turtle (order Testudines) living in fresh or brackish water. Terrapins do not form a taxonomic unit and may not be closely related. Many belong to the families Geoemydidae and Emydidae. The name ...

s and carp up to long. No fishing is allowed in the park and dogs must be kept on leads. Millers Pond and its two adjacent ponds to the north (which are not publicly accessible) are notably home to a diverse range of amphibians, including

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scient ...

s, and both

smooth Smooth may refer to: Mathematics * Smooth function, a function that is infinitely differentiable; used in calculus and topology * Smooth manifold, a differentiable manifold for which all the transition maps are smooth functions * Smooth algebrai ...

and

palmate newt The palmate newt (''Lissotriton helveticus'') is a species of newt found in Western Europe, from Great Britain to the northern Iberian peninsula. It is long and olive or brown with some dark spots. The underside is yellow to orange, and the thr ...

s (the latter a rare species in London).Spring Park Ponds
Greenspace Information for Greater London. Millers Pond and the two adjacent ponds are collectively designated as a nature conservation area of ; they are listed under the name Spring Park Ponds as a Borough Grade II site by Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL), the environmental record centre for Greater London. According to GiGL, the ponds "are of value simply due to the shortage of

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

habitats on the dry foothills of the

North Downs The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. Much of the North Downs comprises two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs): the Surrey Hills a ...

Gallery

Millers Pond, London Borough of Croydon 05.jpg, View towards the northern end with the smaller of the pond's two islands on the right Millers Pond, Croydon 01.jpg, View from the boardwalk in the northeastern corner with reeds in the foreground Millers Pond, Croydon 07.jpg, Pond partially frozen over following the " Beast from the East II" of February 2021 Millers Pond, Croydon 12.jpg, Main grassy area west of the pond looking towards the northern exit onto Farm Lane Millers Pond, London Borough of Croydon 13.jpg, Green area west of the pond, as viewed from the main entrance off Shirley Way Millers Pond, London Borough of Croydon 09.jpg,

s for 2016/17 and 2017/18 Millers Pond, December 2019 - 4.jpg,

Gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century ...

s, mallards,

, and a

References

External links

Millers Pond
at GoParksLondon
Millers Pond
at Grow Wild
Photo of Millers Pond {{circa 1965
Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Croydon Urban public parks in the United Kingdom 1934 establishments in England