Woods Mill update, June 2026

Ryan Allison

Area Manager - West 

Woods Mill is a much-loved reserve. Many people, including our Trustees, have been regular visitors since childhood, and care very much about it.

As with all of our reserves, Woods Mill has a regularly reviewed, deeply-considered Management Plan. And both our reserves team, and our incredible Friday Conservation Volunteers, are involved with implementing those plans. We will be keeping you up-to-date about some particularly interesting aspects of this, but, in the meantime, we wanted to address the immediate concerns of some visitors, who are worried about the Woods Mill pond. This is a body of water which has, undoubtedly, changed over the decades. Not suddenly, or dramatically, but gradually. 

Woods Mill pond is an artificial waterbody, dammed at its lower end, and the summer water flow into the pond has been reduced since the stream that once fed it was restored to its former natural path in 2010 and the leat has largely been disconnected from the Woods Mill stream (something which is outside of our control). When a water body is dammed by hard engineering, it collects silt, as its natural functions are reduced/removed. Without dredging, this builds up over time. 

As the silt builds, there is less space for water. So, the water depth reduces. As the water depth reduces, the water is warmed faster. Warm water carries less oxygen. Duckweed and floating lilies thrive in these conditions, which is what visitors are noticing. All of this is, of course, exacerbated by the droughts we have been experiencing in recent years.

Sussex Wildlife Trust is considering whether desilting is an option, but this option is both very costly and problematic in other ways. The alternative is becoming comfortable with natural succession. Over time, the pond would slowly reduce and transition into more reed-swamp and shallow water. We appreciate this would mean change, and change isn't easy, especially if you have happy memories of a place looking a certain way. 

In the meantime, the West Nature Reserves Team, including the Friday Volunteer Reserve Management group, has begun opening up the area around the pond to allow more air to flow over the water surface to aid getting oxygen into the warm, shallow water. We have been tree and shrub felling. This work will continue during autumn and winter. The Ranger team will manually remove some areas of floating lilies and sweep off some duckweed, which will result in some open water, but this will be only be effective for a short while.

Woods Mill Nature Reserve is more than a pond. It has many beautiful areas to visit, including ancient woodlands, meadows and flood plains, all of which support a huge variety of wildlife. The Friday Volunteers, for example, have recently widened one of the woodland paths to make it a hotspot for butterflies. 

We are aware visitors miss the bird hide, so please be reassured that plans are in place for a bird hide to return to the reserve.

It's also important to note the many wildlife successes at Woods Mill. For example, Coots have bred in the pond this year, as have Moorhen, and at least one family of Mallard is currently on eggs. Little Grebe have been nesting, and Grey Heron are on the reserve most days. We've heard two singing male Nightingale, so likely there are two nests. And Cuckoo have been calling regularly for over a month.

We will continue to keep you up to date with future plans for Woods Mill Nature Reserve.