Blue Pool is a flooded, disused clay pit

Clay pit

A clay pit is a quarry or mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement.The brickyard or brickworks is often located alongside the clay pit to reduce the transport costs of the raw material. These days pottery producers are often not...

 where Purbeck Ball Clay

Purbeck Ball Clay

Purbeck Ball Clay is a concentration of ball clay found on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset.-Geology:The main concentration of ball clay in Dorset is to the north of the Purbeck Hills centred around Norden. Ball clays are sedimentary in origin...

  was once extracted. It is now a lake within the Furzebrook Estate, a 25 acres (10.1 ha) park of heath

Heath (habitat)

A heath or heathland is a dwarf-shrub habitat found on mainly low quality acidic soils, characterised by open, low growing woody vegetation, often dominated by plants of the Ericaceae. There are some clear differences between heath and moorland...

 woodland and gorse

Gorse

Gorse, furze, furse or whin is a genus of about 20 plant species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia.Gorse is closely related to the brooms, and like them, has green...

 near Furzebrook

Furzebrook, Dorset

Furzebrook is a small village on the Isle of Purbeck, in the county of Dorset in the south of England.Furzebrook is about 2 km south of Wareham and 5 km west of Corfe Castle....

 on the Isle of Purbeck

Isle of Purbeck

The Isle of Purbeck, not a true island but a peninsula, is in the county of Dorset, England. It is bordered by the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the north. Its western boundary is less well...

, in the county of Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, south England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

Furzebrook Estate is about 2 km south of Wareham

Wareham, Dorset

Wareham is an historic market town and, under the name Wareham Town, a civil parish, in the English county of Dorset. The town is situated on the River Frome eight miles southwest of Poole.-Situation and geography:...

 and 5 km east of Corfe Castle.

The pool started life early in the 17th century as a chalk pit. Purbeck Ball Clay was dug from the pit from the mid 17th century to the early 20th century. The Ball Clay was used to make fine ceramic products, such as smoking pipes, plates, cups and tea pots. The pit became disused before the first world war, but Purbeck Ball Clay is still extracted from other pits in the area. The title 'Blue' arose, because there are minute particles of clay in suspension within the water. These suspensions variously diffract the reflected light, yielding colours from 'cloudy' grey, through green, to the more typical turquoise. The superb metallic blue sometimes found in photographs is more likely to be a reflection of the sky, as the attraction's own website makes no such claim for the water, and their leaflets call it “a turquoise jewel set in the heart of Purbeck”.

In 1935 a café

Café

A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...

 was opened at the site. There is also a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 and gift shop. In 1985 the estate was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

http://www.english-nature.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1000266.pdf. Now law protects the habitat of a variety of rare plants and animals. The site includes nature reserves managed by the Herpetological Conservation Trust and a private nature reserve.

Blue Pool is now a popular tourist attraction, especially because it is a place of peace and tranquillity. The pool is surrounded by twenty five acres of heath land. The nationally rare Dorset Heath and Marsh Gentian

Marsh Gentian

Gentiana pneumonanthe is a species of the genus Gentiana. It was the first wildflower announced as flower of the year in Germany in 1980.The species can be found in Marshes and Moorlands. It is the host-plant of the Alcon Blue ....

 are common to the area. The estate is crossed by a network of sandy paths. There are steps down to the edge of the Pool and there are also steps on some paths around the Pool, but there is also a completely flat route around the Pool, which is suitable for wheelchairs.

The lush vegetation around the pool is inhabited by grey squirrel

Squirrel

Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...

s, rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

s and badger

Badger

Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the weasel family, Mustelidae. There are nine species of badger, in three subfamilies : Melinae , Mellivorinae , and Taxideinae...

s. The Estate supports numerous rare birds, amphibians and reptiles. Visitors may therefore be lucky enough to spot the Dartford warbler

Dartford Warbler

The Dartford Warbler, Sylvia undata, is a typical warbler from the warmer parts of western Europe, and northwestern Africa. Its breeding range lies west of a line from southern England to the heel of Italy...

 (Sylvia undata) or the nightjar (Caprimulgus euuropaeus). Both of Britain's endangered and protected reptiles, the green Sand Lizard

Sand Lizard

The sand lizard is a lacertid lizard distributed across most of Europe and eastwards to Mongolia. It does not occur in the Iberian peninsula or European Turkey. Its distribution is often patchy....

 (Laerta agilis) and the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) live here in considerable numbers. There are also many dragonflies

Dragonfly

A dragonfly is a winged insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera . It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...

 and the rare Sika deer

Sika Deer

The Sika Deer, Cervus nippon, also known as the Spotted Deer or the Japanese Deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to various other parts of the world...

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