As far as I understand, “Priddy Pools” is the name of a Site of Special Scientific Interest located at Priddy in Somerset. But to me is there is one ‘Priddy Pool’—the big one to the side of the Old Bristol Road, near the village.
There’s a sort of lay-by to the side of the road with room for a few cars (watch out for a few potholes), and the pool itself is just a few steps away down the bank. You can walk all the way round its perimeter—well, almost all the way round: the farthest point can be extremely boggy and you could just get stuck, depending on the state of the ground.
The place gets quite a few visitors, especially during the summer. It’s also buzzing with wildlife: there are rare species of dragonflies, as well as perch, sticklebacks, newts, grass snakes, adders, moorhens, coots, mallards, reed buntings, sedge warblers and goodness knows how many species of algae, mosses and plants.
Unsurprisingly the pretty setting also attracts photographarius vulgaris.
The extreme drought of 2022 made for an odd year for the pool. In the spring it looked its usual pretty self, as in the photo below.
But by the time the summer heatwave was under way, the lack of rain meant that the water was fast disappearing, and the reeds were taking over.
Even the flags were flagging (but they still looked pretty).
After the very worst of the severe drought, the water had virtually disappeared, leaving only a rather sorry-looking patch just a few metres in diameter.
It had become Priddy Puddle.
But once the autumn rains returned, the pool reclaimed its wonted appearance—and its beauty, as seen here at dusk:
