Hell Kettles

Body of water in County Durham, England

Hell Kettles

Hell's Kettles

Site of Special Scientific Interest

Location| MAGiC MaP
Nearest town| Darlington
Coordinates| 54°29′34″N 1°34′5″W﻿ / ﻿54.49278°N 1.56806°W﻿ / 54.49278; -1.56806
Area| 3.4 ha (8.4 acres)
Established| 1976
Governing body| Natural England
Website| Hell Kettles SSSI

Hell Kettles is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Darlington district of County Durham, England. It was designated for its biological interest as the only site in County Durham where there is a body of water fed by springs.

## Location

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The site, which lies on the floodplain of the River Tees, to the south of Darlington, is situated alongside the A167, about 1 mile south of the junction of that road with the A66.

## Origin

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The Kettles are two pools that are the result of catastrophic subsidence in 1179:[1] the Permian rocks underlying the area include substantial thicknesses of evaporites—gypsum and gypsiferous mudstone—and subsidence resulting from subterranean dissolution of these beds is a frequent occurrence, though the scale of the Hell Kettles subsidence is exceptional.[2] Surface runoff and seepage from calcareous springs has created the two pools, one of which is the only body of spring-fed open water in County Durham: there were originally four subsidence depressions, but one filled in and two are now linked in a pond aptly named 'Double Kettle'.

The name "hell-kettle" is often applied to ponds that are popularly believed to be bottomless;[3] these particular ponds are mentioned in Holinshed's Chronicles:[4]

> There are certeine pits, or rather three little pooles, a mile from Darlington, and a quarter of a mile distant from the These banks which the people call the Kettles of hell, or the diuels Kettles...

> — 1587 ed, vol 1, chap 24

and, it has been suggested,[5] may have inspired the scene in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in which Alice tumbles down a rabbit hole.

## Ecology

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Despite their proximity, the two pools differ ecologically. 'Double Kettle' is fed by surface runoff and its water is turbid, supporting only an impoverished surface vegetation of pondweeds, including the alien Canadian pondweed, Elodea canadensis; it is fringed mainly by common reed, Phragmites australis, with some saw-sedge and common club-rush, Scirpus lacustris. [6]

To the south, the smaller 'Croft Kettle' is fed by calcareous subterranean springs and its clear water supports a luxuriant growth of stoneworts; its fringing swamp is dominated by saw-sedge, Cladium mariscus, creating a vegetation type similar to that of the fens of East Anglia and which is found nowhere else in County Durham.[6]

The area around the ponds is mainly damp grassland, with a rich variety of sedges, Carex spp.[6]

## References

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1. ^ "British Geological Survey: Geoscenic". Image no. P222314: Hell Kettles. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
2. ^ Cooper, A H (1995). Subsidence hazards due to the dissolution of Permian gypsum in England (in Karst Geohazards, ed Beck, B F). Rotterdam: Balkema. pp. 23–30\. ISBN 90-5410-535-6. OCLC 303613701.
3. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed.
4. ^ "The Holinshed Project". Holinshed's Chronicles. 1587. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2011.
5. ^ Radford, Tim (15 September 1999). "Geologist solves mystery of Alice's sinking feeling". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 July 2010.
6. ^ a b c "Hell Kettles : Reasons for SSSI status" (PDF). Natural England. Retrieved 1 April 2022.

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Sites of Special Scientific Interest in County Durham

* Backstone Bank and Baal Hill Woods
* Baldersdale Woodlands
* Bishop Middleham Quarry
* Bollihope, Pikestone, Eggleston and Woodland Fells
* Botany Hill
* Bowes Moor
* Bowlees and Friar House Meadows
* Brasside Pond
* Brignall Banks
* Burnhope Burn
* Butterby Oxbow
* Cassop Vale
* Castle Eden Dene
* Causey Bank Mires
* Charity Land
* Close House Mine
* Cornriggs Meadows
* Cotherstone Moor
* Crag Gill
* Crime Rigg and Sherburn Hill Quarries
* Dabble Bank
* Derwent Gorge and Horsleyhope Ravine
* Durham Coast
* Fairy Holes Cave
* Far High House Meadows
* Fishburn Grassland
* Foster's Hush
* Frog Wood Bog
* God's Bridge
* Grains o' th' Beck Meadows
* Green Croft and Langley Moor
* Greenfoot Quarry
* Hannah's Meadows
* Hawthorn Dene
* Hawthorn Quarry
* Hell Kettles
* Hesledon Moor East
* Hesledon Moor West
* Hexhamshire Moors
* Hisehope Burn Valley
* Hulam Fen
* Hunder Beck Juniper
* Kilmond Scar
* Low Redford Meadows
* Lune Forest
* Mere Beck Meadows
* Middle Crossthwaite
* Middle Side and Stonygill Meadows
* Middleton Quarry
* Middridge Quarry
* Moorhouse and Cross Fell
* Muggleswick, Stanhope and Edmundbyers Commons and Blanchland Moor
* Neasham Fen
* Newton Ketton Meadow
* Old Moss Lead Vein
* Park End Wood
* Pig Hill
* Pike Whin Bog
* Pittington Hill
* Pow Hill Bog
* Quarrington Hill Grasslands
* Railway Stell West
* Raisby Hill Grassland
* Raisby Hill Quarry
* Redcar Field
* Rigg Farm and Stake Hill Meadows
* Rogerley Quarry
* Sherburn Hill
* Shipley and Great Woods
* Sleightholme Beck Gorge – The Troughs
* Slit Woods
* Stony Cut, Cold Hesledon
* Teesdale Allotments
* The Bottoms
* The Carrs
* Thrislington Plantation
* Town Kelloe Bank
* Trimdon Limestone Quarry
* Tuthill Quarry
* Upper Teesdale
* Waldridge Fell
* West Newlandside Meadows
* West Park Meadows
* West Rigg Open Cutting
* Westernhope Burn Wood
* Wingate Quarry
* Witton-le-Wear
* Yoden Village Quarry

Neighbouring areas
Cleveland
Northumberland
Tyne and Wear
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