About the Pond
The village pond and its spring source are of great antiquity, the spring comprising the primary source of the River Stert - associated with the legendary foundation of Abingdon Abbey.
In common with many local villages the settlement of Sunningwell appears to have evolved around the spring - the village name featuring such, being derived form an Old English personal name 'Sunna', coupled with the words 'inga' (people of) and 'wella' (spring or stream) - first recorded in 811 AD and later mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086AD. To date, the earliest known reference to the pond itself is contained in a local deed pole of 1447AD.
In former times the source waters of the pond were reputed to be a sovereign remedy for sore eyes, whilst local Catholic references record a shrine in this area visited by many people in the Middle Ages. Especially those who had travelled from abroad to visit the once famous "Sunnyg's Well", which apparently cured the blind!
Picture below shows some modern day children of Sunningwell Primary School, fascinated by the pond - things don't change much!
The following item entitled "The Watercress Man" was written by Jean Williamson who was born in Sunningwell in the 1920's and has lived here all her life. In the 1930's she attended the primary school, which is now the art school, and one of her main sources of entertainment was seeing the watercress man on one of his regular visits to the pond.
The Watercress Man
We were all excited when we were attending Sunningwell primary school during the 1930's. Not much happened to our every day life so the pond became our central focal point to our very idyllic village. Every child went fishing for minnows and stickle backs, the water was so clear one could see the waving green plants under the water, many children fell in - but it wasn't very deep and never ever froze over, even in the coldest winters.
The Watercress man came during the summer months, where he came from or where he went to, nobody knows, he never spoke to a soul.
He arrived on a bike with a pair of waders and a huge piece of sacking and a sharp knife. After propping up his ramshackle bike he spread out the sacking, put his waders and armed with knife walked into the clear water. He cut arms full of watercress, spread it out on the sacking and then tied up the four corners tightly - then heaved the wet mass onto the bar of his bike, took his waders off and then cycled into the blue, he most likely had a very good offer from someone who was willing to buy his wares.
Perhaps they didn't know about the small mixed herd of dairy, shorthorn cows, belonging to Mr Stanbridge who lived at Church Farm next to the school.
When he brought them back from a different pasture they would be driven through the village at a very leisurely pace and would make for the cool water of the pond for a long drink, by wading in up to their bellies, - this was another event that excited us children - we gave each cow a name, one cow I remember was pure white.
Perhaps it was the result of the cows that the watercress was so profuse?
