"From the bench you can just see a small part of pond one. There are actually 3 ponds and the other pond is down to our left near the old Mansfield Road. The ponds serve several purposes. Williamthorpe Angling club, which is a well-established club, lease the ponds off Derbyshire County Council for fishing, also, of great wildlife value.
"On a really bad winter, Williamthorpe becomes very important to a lot of wildfowl from the whole area. The mine water that is actually pumped out of the mine is actually warmer than the water present in the pond and this prevents part of pond one and the reed bed from freezing and this is when you will get a hell of a lot more wildfowl on pond one simply for a food source and somewhere to be in safety away from predators. And on average there is 10 million gallons of water passes through the reed bed and through into the pond network."