Early in his work Cooper explains chalk streams, which are an internationally rare habitat most commonly found in the rolling chalk lands of Southern England, though there are a few in Northern France. These are an internationally rare habitats renowned for their crystal clarity and for the trout that thrive in the alkaline waters that flow upwards from the chalk that underlies Southern England. These waters fell months, sometimes years before they surfaced, as they first sank down into the porous chalk to remain until the saturated rock gave up its excess load.
Yet Cooper tells us that the chalk stream is not a habitat that was discovered by the earliest Britons, but is the product of centuries of history dating back through Mediaeval times. In ancient times the stream would have been a muddy meander sloshing shallowly through a valley, but as humans began to use the valleys they established water mills, which necessitated containing the channel. The result was not only a narrower stream, but lands suitable for farming along the banks. This sort of land gave rise to water meadows, lands whose flooding was managed for the rich mud and water that was added to the soil. so economically valuable were the meadows that a now extinct profession arose to manage them, the drowner. Drowners were men employed to manage the water levels that flowed through the network of channels that took the flooding over the land and moved it off before it overstayed and ruined the soil.
All this human attention meant that the streams became clear of mud and weeds and began to become the ideal home for trout. Soon the Victorians got to know of them, and the chalk streams of the south were a magnet for wealthy anglers, stimulating the development of angling as a business. The use of water meadows has now faded because of artificial fertilizers, but there are moves to preserve them, and Prince Charles is an enthusiastic supporter of the redevelopment of ancient meadows. So there is hope.
Cooper's stream is the Evitt, which flows southwards to the English Channel, for part of its stretch through Gavel's Wood. The term gavel means a payment of dues, and why the wood is so named no one knows, but that is its ancient name. The wood seems to have been allowed to be itself for several hundred years, with no intrusions from agriculture, so it is a piece of Mediaval woodland in a modern landscape.
Comments
The more people who are concerned with the conservation of nature the better, and it helps when they are well-positioned in society.
I see Prince Charles in involved. While I do not see him as a great future king, it is a positive on his behalf. When a person who could potentially ascend the throne becomes involved in preservation there is hope.
The return of water meadows is long overdue. They not only enrich the land, but provide overflow management for swollen rivers.
frankbeswick, Isn't it ironically comforting to know that human re-configuration of slip-sliding mud into water meadows?
River-keeping seems like such a practical, valuable contribution to the environment and to human progress, particularly when river-keepers such as Simon Cooper share.
When reading this book you would not think that the peaceful Evitt valley was the scene of a bloody battle in the fifth century between warring groups containing Saxons and Britons. No evidence of the battle remains.
Great, that makes me feel good. I am an educator at heart, and so I get a good feeling when people make comments like yours.
I'm expanding my education. I've never heard of chalk streams although I have heard of the White Cliffs of Dover. Great article.
A word that I might need to explain to non-English readers: downs is a name given ranges of low, softly rolling hills in Southern England. It is etymologically linked to the word dune,