Filling in pond / hole advice

Hi,

We moved in here Sept last year and the pond was in situ. Whilst we really like it, I have young children and so we decided to drain it and fill it in to avoid any accidents! It also opens up a useable space for my kids to use (possibly a trampoline, etc).


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I recently drained the pond and removed all of the liners/carpet/pumps/etc. The fish, newts, frogs, etc were re-homed/donated to someone nearby with a pond. I carefully did this whilst slowly draining it with nets, etc. I then had the enjoyable job of shoveling out all of the debris at the bottom of and around the edge of the pond.




There were and still are an awful lot of ornamental rocks around the pond, so I decided to chuck in a layer of those to act as drainage/firm the ground up



This is the point I am at now, and I am a bit stumped on how best to fill in the remainder of the hole to make it stable/not sink/etc. Here are the measurements:

Length of Pond: 450cm
Width of Pond: 300cm
Depth of Pond: 60cm
Depth of Pond now with 1x layer of rocks: 50cm

So I now have about 50cm of depth to fill to bring the level back to the surrounding ground... Should I be looking to just dump a load of top soil for this? Do/should I need any MOT/Type 1? Will I need to wacker it down? Should I remove the layer of rocks I've put in there? Any other advice? How much of each material will I need based on my measurements?

I am probably over thinking it, but just want to ensure the job is done right.

I will also need to fill in the steps/waterfall indents as well, but will hopefully be able to do that with any remaining material?

Thanks!

The previous owners of my house had a pond which they filled in and covered with slate chippings.... I hated it and it just got weeds and looked scruffy... So I got a few tonnes of Top Soil and converted it to a strawberry bed , get loads of strawberries and they're confined to the pond area. Re-doing 1/3 of it this year , by replacing the old plants and putting down a membrane ... because I still got the weeds .

I'm no expert, but don't think there's any benefit to leaving them in (other than not having to dispose of them)
Really depends on future use, it looks pretty shady and tucked out the way so if it's just a play area, trampoline space etc it's never going to be pristine anyway so probably not worth investing a huge amount of time\money
I'd fill it in and compact as much as I can (just using a tamp, wouldn't bother getting a wackerplate), let it settle and top it up again in 6 months or so

There's plenty of topsoil calculators out there but based on the measurements you've provided, you'll need 8m3 / 13 tonnes!!

It’s a shame people do this, ponds are a fantastic haven for wildlife in urban/suburban areas and can provide endless fascination for kids…

I agree, a fence or safety grate would have been my solution.

I get what a few of you are saying. I rather like the pond and the wildlife it attracts, however my daughter's are young and they like to explore. We don't feel easy with them being out in the garden on their own so it had to go. Particularly as we've caught them near it a few times.

We've unearthed a pile of soil and weeds at the bottom of the garden. Whilst the soil isn't great and is full of weeds, etc I think I might use that to fill a fair bit of the hole. I'll get a tamper and tamp it down thoroughly as I go and then get some top soil for the remaining 3 or 4 inches.



Does that sound a sensible idea? Should I keep the rocks in there?

Definitely keep the rocks in there if you are filling the hole in-a bit of type one on top to bring it up to nearly level ,I would suggest a wacker plate ,otherwise it will definitely sink to some degree, then a bit of topsoil and seed.a couple of inches of topsoil will be more than enough for grass to grow

Id leave the rocks in there too, if you ever wanted to reinstate in the future it would be easier to remove them.
A decent covering off topsoil should make it safe to walk on etc.

Build your own pond then.

Judging the OP for making his house suit his family? Only on the internet.

5 years on it has settled a little in the middle- a further dumpy bag of topsoil and grass seed has sorted.