The Pond at Lent Green Lane
The pond at Lent Green Lane is owned by Buckinghamshire Council but managed by Burnham Parish Council, under a 21-year management agreement running from 2026-2047.
This agreement has allowed us to improve the pond, carry out tree and bush work, and add lots of new amenities, including benches and the new pond information board, kindly funded by South-East Bucks Community Board. The board was unveiled by the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, The Countess Howe, on 13th June 2026.
Since then our Grounds Team have also installed a new duck house - Duckingham Palace - built by Burnham Men's Shed; and we have more plans to come!
Oversight of the pond is by Burnham Parish Council’s Pond Working Group. This consists of Council staff, Councillors, representatives of the Friends of the Pond, and several other local group and wildlife groups: The Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust; The Wildfowl and Wetland Trust; St Peter’s Church, Burnham; The Burnham Foundation; Berkshire Landscapes; and Burnham Health Promotion Trust.
Our mission is "To preserve and enhance what is already at the pond, for the benefit of wildlife and the enjoyment of residents and other members of the public".
The Friends of the Pond, who represent local residents, also supply our ‘Pond Champions’ who help keep an eye on the pond for us. If you wish to join the Friends please see their Facebook page below:
Some history
Introduction and history: The pond is believed to have existed since at least the 18th century, and is shown on maps from this period. It appears on the 1838 tithe map (pictured) as belonging to the Vicar, the Reverend Thomas Carter. Some residents know it as the Vicarage Pond or Vicky Pond. It is also sometimes called the Duck Pond, the Pond at Lent Green Lane, Burnham Pond, and perhaps most commonly just ‘The Pond’. Importantly, it is YOUR pond – for the enjoyment of the whole community, visitors and of course its wildlife residents!
A later map from 1936 also shows the Vicarage pond, but not the smaller pond that appears on the other side of the path in the 1838 map. The Vicar had the pond drained and cleaned for use as a school swimming pool in 1910, and some residents remember having swimming lessons there in the 1940s and 1950s.
Wildlife
Wildlife ponds provide food and shelter to many species. Insects breed in and around it, and they in turn become an essential food source to wildlife such as bats, hedgehogs, swifts, frogs, toads, and newts
Some species that you might see or hear in or around the Pond include mallards
Mallards, moor hens, blue tits, pipistrelle bats, noctule bats, carrion crows, robins, red kites, great tits, swifts, long tailed tits, wood pigeons, jackdaws, coots, wrens, parakeets, and of course grey squirrels!
You will also see shrubs such as hawthorn and bramble. There are also lots of different trees in and around the pond including willow, poplar, oak, sycamore, poplar, ash and more!
