How celebrities including David Beckham and Ed Sheeran are flocking to buy natural pools for their mansions following rising popularity of wild swimming

The rising popularity of wild swimming has sparked a flood of interest in natural pools.

The Beckhams, singer Ed Sheeran and actor Dominic West and are among the celebrities to have splashed out on eco-friendly ponds or lakes.

Whenever the mercury rises, like this week, demand for chemical-free swimming ponds also soars.

Paul Mercer, of Norfolk-based The Swimming Pond Company, says that they are a clean, green alternative to polluted rivers or conventional chlorine-based pools.

He said: ‘We were one of the first companies to set up in the UK in 2006 when very few people had heard about swimming ponds.

Pooling resources: The Beckhams are among the many celebrities said to have splashed out on eco-friendly ponds or lakes

Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has also acquired a chemical-free, natural pool

Paul Mercer, of Norfolk-based The Swimming Pond Company, says that natural pools are a clean, green alternative to polluted rivers or conventional chlorine-based pools

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‘We had very few enquiries and we would finish one contract and wonder where the next one would come from.

‘But now there are around 2,000 natural swimming ponds in the UK and we get as many as 300 enquiries a year.’

Mr Mercer used to swim in his local river, the Waveney, which divides Norfolk and Suffolk.

He said: ‘There is a great movement towards wild swimming but that has come the last few years when there has been a problem with pollution in our rivers and lakes.

‘The Waveney has had a bad press for pollution. I would not want to swim in it now and I am sure a lot of people feel the same way.’

A typical 180 square metre swimming pond costs around £160,000 and is divided into two zones of equal size separated by a wall.

The ‘regeneration zone’ is planted with aquatic plants such as reeds, which attract wildlife, and a pipe pumps clean, filtered water from it into the swimming zone.

The ponds tend to be much bigger than conventional swimming pools and lower maintenance as they do not require draining and refilling.

Mr Mercer said: ‘Even our smallest ponds have more space for swimming than a typical 40sq m family size swimming pool.

‘And swimming ponds are not just a beautiful environment to swim surrounded by plants but also the most stunning feature in a garden.

‘We spend a lot of time just sitting on the decking by the pond in the evening watching swallows flying overhead – if you are lucky a kingfisher visiting – and dragonflies in all colours and newts.’

Clients – mostly from ‘the southern half of the UK’ have included garden designer Helen Allison, who had a 120sq m pond built at her home in Poslingford, Suffolk.

Tim Evans, owner and managing director of north London-based swimming pond company Gartenart, said: ‘Particularly since the Covid years, it has been a very good time for our business.

Dominic West is another celebrity said to have signed up to the natural pool phenomenon

‘More and more people are taking cold plunges – swimming or dipping – all year round, so that it is almost mainstream.

‘Rivers are ever higher risk from pollution whereas a natural swimming pond is zero risk as a safe, clean environment.

‘Many of our clients want something that looks beautiful, is practical to swim in and is going to integrate into the landscape rather than a pristine blue rectangle with chlorinated water.

‘In my experience from the heart, there is nothing that beats swimming in a natural swimming pond with fresh water.’

Gartenart’s creations cost from £140,000 for a 70sq m pond rising to £250,000 for a 350sq m design.

West, 54, recently told how he built a giant natural pond in the country garden at his Cotswolds home with the help of David Pagan Butler, dubbed the ‘Einstein of Natural Swimming Pools’.

Famed for his innovative ‘bubble-powered’, chemical-free, low-energy, organic natural swimming pools, Pagan Butler’s work has won him over 100,000 devoted YouTube followers.

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The Crown star West’s naturally filtered family pool measures 30m long, 4m wide and 2m deep.

He said: ‘I’ve always loved swimming in the sea as well as in lakes and rivers.

‘But there’s something very special about swimming in a natural swimming pool. It makes me feel bulletproof, while of course there’s also that immediate connection to nature.

‘When I’m in the mood I do a spot of underwater gardening by weeding the aquatic plants.

‘Then when I’m finished, I head straight for our home-built sauna.’

The Beckhams dug a 4,170 sq m, kidney-shaped lake with an island in the middle within the grounds of their Cotswolds farmhouse retreat in 2021.

The couple planted hedgerows and trees to protect native birds and used special lights to help bats.

Ed Sheeran installed a pond at his £3.7 million estate in Framlingham, Suffolk, with a jetty to dive off and a wooden Romany-style caravan, which could be used as a changing room.

A planning application described how the pond would ‘support nature conservation… providing a natural habitat for breeding and wetland invertebrates such as dragonflies and water beetles, as well as providing a source of drinking water to birds and mammals’.

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith also installed a 10-ft deep lake with an island and Chinese-style bridge and pagoda within her Oxfordshire estate when her children learnt to swim.