“I just think a pond is an incredible, incredible thing,” he says. Pete, 63, definitely practices what he preaches. He is estimated to build 50 new ponds a year and has 42 ponds in the garden of his home in Willingdon, near Eastbourne, and a further nine indoor aquariums.
Deborah Nicholls-Lee from Sussex Life was keen to see him at work and met him in Broadbridge Heath, where he leads a team of five men in matching 'PTP' t-shirts carrying out conservation work on a wooded body of water known locally as Ducky Pond.
A week of wind and rain has made the pond's water cloudy, but today I notice that the weather is unusually mild. “Always,” he says, unsurprised, pointing to his yellow helmet with PETE written on it in capital letters. “That’s the lucky hat!” Perched on his left shoulder is Mango, a sun conure with plumage that perfectly matches Pete's headgear. It accompanies him wherever he goes, occasionally making a squeak when excited by wild animals or new people.
Pete and his team are not in the pond today. “It has a lot of flow and is too deep,” explains Pete. Normally they would scoop out mud to restore him to health. “This is backbreaking work,” says one of the men. Sometimes they extract up to 18 tons per day. On the bright side, another chimes in: “You don't have to go to the gym.”
Today the main task is to reduce marginal vegetation. “We cut back the blackberry bushes because they would just overwhelm everything and we want to preserve more diversity and wildlife,” explains Pete. “We chop it up and then use the branches and old sticks to form hibernaculum clusters, which serve as overwintering habitat for creatures.” Bank voles, slowworms, grass snakes, toads, frogs, newts and insects can all benefit, he says, while the rotting wood attracts fungi.
However, not all creatures are welcome. The occasional glimmer of gold in Ducky Pond indicates that a koi carp has been dumped there by an irresponsible owner. “It shouldn’t be here,” says Pete, but always cheerfully emphasizes that there are also “really good fish like sticklebacks” in the pond.
Rain has made the sides of the pond slippery and even his experienced team slides around, but the diving platform they created provides a safe space for children to explore the water. Plans for the pond include “more planting and some more light to maintain a greater variety of aquatic species,” such as purple loosestrife, marshwort and irises. “We’re trying to get life back to where it should be,” he says.
Pond maintenance can be a dangerous business. In winter the team were at the Bradness Gallery in Barcombe and waded in a pond surrounded by a three-inch layer of ice. Often the mud is deeper than the water, and about 20 years ago a muddy pond in Battle Pete wouldn't let go. Since he sank up to his mouth in water, he had to be rescued with a rope.
Pete's sense of adventure isn't dampened by the fact that he's missing most of his right leg. This is the result of a motorcycle accident when he was just 18 years old, which also affected his pillion friend's leg. His right arm still has limited mobility and his elbow hurts, but Pete's future prospects remain optimistic. “I lost my leg, but it’s nothing to worry about.” It's just a leg. You can move on. You can still go snowboarding. I do. You can still climb mountains. I never stop trying things. I still get into ponds, I still drive excavators and dump trucks.'
It's a message he shares with children when he teaches pond diving or helps set up forest schools. “I’ll talk to them about what you can do.” [with a disability] and often they want to touch the leg,” he says. He thinks he is currently on stage 32. “I fall over quite often,” he says. “I break them a lot.” However, there is always an advantage. He is the undefeated “Pirate of the Year” at the annual Pirate Day in Hastings in July. After all, few can compete with a truly one-legged man with a pet parrot.
Pete is a jeweler by profession and has always had a love for the outdoors. “I loved geology, going up mountains and collecting rocks and minerals,” he says. It wasn't until 2000, when he completed a pond warden course sponsored by Southern Water, that he found a new calling. Back then, he says, “we were losing 9,000 ponds a year in England.” According to the Sussex Wildlife Trust, around half of the UK's ponds have been lost this century, but the last decade has seen a six per cent increase thanks to campaigners like Pete and projects such as the Million Ponds Project.
Unfortunately, the ponds that are still preserved often have problems. Pete points to the water just beyond the park bench where we stopped to chat. “Even in this pond right now there are no oxygenated weeds, no hornworts, no underwater species like the Potamogetons that should be in these ponds and are not here now,” he says. “It’s a sad thing because these oxygenated weeds are what sustain things, keep the water clean and support life.”
The importance of ponds, says Pete, can hardly be overstated. “When I speak to horticultural societies, one of my slides shows you how many creatures drink from a pond – everything has to drink water: butterflies, grasshoppers, beetles, ants, bees, bats, deer, cows, horses, birds…” Climate change has made ponds more important than ever, says Pete. They cool the air and, when healthy, provide clean water: “our most valuable commodity on the planet.” Plus, “they retain water and are perfect for preventing flooding,” he says.
Not everyone shares Pete's enthusiasm for ponds. In 2021, a dispute with Wealden District Council over Pete's “untidy” pond-filled eco-garden, sparked by a complaint from neighbors, was finally resolved thanks in part to a petition signed by over 46,000 of his supporters. “Very nice people have helped me all over the world,” recalls Pete, who even received “a lovely letter” from broadcaster and natural historian Sir David Attenborough wishing him good luck.
Ponds, says Pete, also tell fascinating stories about our past, from farm ponds used to quench livestock and irrigate crops to hammer ponds created for the iron industry. “Historically they are part of the English landscape and need to be preserved forever,” he says. Some of the ponds he deals with are ancient. The amber-colored village pond near the castle, for example, is 2,000 years old.
Ponds can also hold surprises. On a recent job in Bodle Street Green, as the team watched the team retrieve bottle after bottle from the depths of a garden pond, it became clear that it had once served as a Victorian bottle dump. Next week Pete travels back to the Stone Age as he restores two ancient dew ponds dug deep in the chalkland at Beachy Head.
When he's not immersed in history, Pete meets local celebrities. Sussex stars who have healthier ponds thanks to Pete include news presenter Natasha Kaplinsky and actor and comedian Steve Coogan. It is known. In 2022 he was the subject of a short film directed by Will Clothier and in January 2025 he appeared in Sandi's Wood, a three-part series on Channel 4 in which he helps comedian and presenter Sandi Toksvig build a wildlife pond.
Back at Ducky Pond, the men collect their tools and it's time for Pete to hit the road. “Since I started working intensively with ponds, I have learned how much life benefits from a pond and therefore from the environment,” says Pete, enjoying the view of the gently undulating pond directly behind us and the adjacent flora that imperceptibly drinks from its water. “Just sitting here, watching a few ducks on the pond, seeing reflections, water movement and the sounds of a creature splashing in the pond – that increases your well-being.”
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