Monument record MDO5487 - Decoy Pond, Poor Common, Corfe Mullen

Decoy pond, formerly with one pipe and recorded as unfinished in the late nineteenth century. The pipe was filled in during the 1970s or early 1980s. The feature is visible as an earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs and was digitally plotted from this source during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

Decoy pond marked on Ordnance Survey 25-inch epoch 1 map (1) and subsequent Ordnance Survey maps. It was an elongated oval shape with curving pipe at its southeastern end, surrounded by earthen banks and with two small islands in the middle. On Ordnance Survey map evidence the pipe was filled in some time between 1970 and 1983.
This decoy pond may be that mentioned by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallway as being unfinished in 1886. (2) (3)

The feature is visible as an earthwork on 1940s aerial photographs where it comprises an elongated oval pond 140m by 60m, with wide surrounding tree covered banks [4]. A possible entrance is visible on the north end and there is a tailed pipe or sluice at its south eastern end. A trackway is visible leading to the end of the 'tail' from the road to the south. The feature was digitally plotted from this source during the Dorset Middle Stour AIM project.

Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Cornwall Council, 2022, 2022 AIM Middle Stour HE8422 (Machine readable data file). SDO21760.

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch 1 (Map). SDO10239.

<2> Payne-Gallwey, R, 1886, The Book of Duck Decoys (Monograph). SDO12857.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1986, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1985, 19 (Serial). SDO85.

<4> Royal Air Force, 01-JAN-1948, RAF/CPE/UK/2431 RS 4085 (Aerial Photograph). SDO19459.

Record last edited

May 7 2026 3:12PM