[3] The ponds were formerly believed to have been dug in the 18th century to provide water to the furnaces in the Soudley Valley and at the nearby Camp Mill.

In fact these would have been fed from the Soudley Brook, and from the Tilting Mill Pool, now in the grounds of the Dean Heritage Centre.

It has also been erroneously claimed that they were dug long before this as fish ponds by the monks of the nearby Flaxley Abbey.

However, Atkinson’s map of 1847 shows only a stream running through the valley where the ponds now lie, and it is nowadays assumed that were created as fish ponds after the land’s 1836 purchase by mine-owner William Crawshay.

In 1899 the ponds, along with the rest of the Abbotswood Estate, were sold by Robert Crawshay, William’s son, to the Crown, from which point they were leased for fishing to private individuals.