Site of 18th century decoy pond, 'Goldhanger Decoy No.1', south of Gardener's Farm (EHER 7878)

Now destroyed. A decoy pond with five pipes which probably existed in 1735. According to OS field report of 1976, 'destroyed by modern reservoir'.

Decoy pond. According to OS field report of 1976, 'destroyed by modern reservoir'. <1> <2> Pond is shown on OS 1:25000 map. <3> See aerial photographs <4> - <10>. The cropmark plot records two ponds and a partial boundary ditch which appears to feed into a roughly north-south aligned drainage channel on the east side of the decoys. <11> Cropmark features indicate two ponds, the pipes partly overlapping, recorded close to the coast near Gardiners Farm. At least one of the decoys was in use in the mid 17th century. Two decoys are shown on the OS Surveyors map of 1805. A large decoy with five pipes, owned by Thomas Lee of Bounds Farm in the late 18th century was worked until around 1870 (Benham, M 1977). On the tithe it is in woodland and surrounded by three fields named Decoy Mead or Decoy Marsh, suggesting it was once much larger in extent. It continued to be used as a flight pond into the 20th century. <12> Goldhanger Decoy (No. 1) is situated one mile South-west from Goldhanger, two and a half miles east from Maldon, and 150 paces from the shore. It had five pipes. Traces of it could still be seen in 1890 on Cobb's Farm, the property of the Rev. Coope Arnold, of Hertford House, Coventry, and in 1886 in the occupation of Mr. Frederick Wakelin. Christy argues that this decoy probably existed in 1735. <13>