Denham Pond

106 Circuit Street, Hanover, MA, USA

Owned By: Town of Hanover

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• Trail Map

Hanover Conservation owns this property off Circuit Street. There are 1.2 miles of marked, intersecting loop trails through the woods, plus a pond, a vernal pool, and a field. Seasonal ice skating.

Features

This parcel was purchased with CPA funds in 2011. Formerly a well-managed forestry parcel, it features a trail through wooded uplands, and mostly dry footpaths through wetland areas. There are two vernal pools on the east side of the property. Denham Pond, a small dammed pond located at the entrance to the property, has been well loved by generations of neighborhood children for summer fishing and winter skating. A vintage street lamp, long-since disconnected, still recalls nighttime skating parties encouraged by the generous former owner, Kenneth Denham.

This land is within the region of the Massachuseuk (or Massachusett) Native American tribe.

Trail Description

There are two main trails, marked with green and red blazes. Some sections of the trail are steep. Altogether the trail network is about 1.2 miles.

Habitats and Wildlife

A coldwater brook winds through the property, with a boardwalk crossing over it. The property also contains a vernal pool. Vernal pools serve as an important breeding ground and are home to a number of amphibians and invertebrate animals. Also known as ephemeral pools, autumnal pools, and temporary woodland ponds, these natural sites fill with water in the fall or winter due to rain and rising groundwater. They stay ponded through the spring and into summer, but tend to dry completely by the middle or end of the summer. This occasional drying prevents fish from permanently populating the pools, allowing amphibians and invertebrate species to reproduce without being targeted by fish predators.

Fauna to be seen at Denham Pond include spotted and red-backed salamanders, wood frogs, white tailed deer, wild turkey, and red squirrel. Notable flora include stands of mature white pine and eastern hemlock, as well as red cedar, red oak, beech, holly, and the occasional yellow birch.

This property is within the watershed of Torrey Brook, a tributary to the Drinkwater River. According to Martha Campbell’s Remembering Old Abington, the name “Drinkwater River” is said to be an Anglicized version of the original Native American name for the stream, Nannumackeuitt, “which meant that a hollow stem had to be used as a straw when sucking up water from this shallow, sluggish stream.”

The Drinkwater River is a major source of the Indian Head River. The Indian Head River forms the boundary between Hanover and Hanson, and merges with Pembroke’s Herring Brook, a short distance downstream of Ludden’s Ford Park, to form the North River at a spot called The Crotch. The North River flows 12 miles through Pembroke, Hanover, Norwell, Marshfield and Scituate, eventually making its way to Massachusetts Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.