PERDITA: You just look at water, this sort of perpetual movement

and reflection and the journey it's on.

DEREK: You can hear the water lapping and you just feel very

close to it.

EMMA: You want to look after it because you love it, but equally

you want to look after it for the wildlife and the visitors

and the people for whom it's an important part of their family

history.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Hello, I'm Ranger Rosie Holdsworth. This

episode we're doing things a little differently and handing

over to our producer Marnie, who swapped her edit suite for the

calm of the Wey Navigations in Guildford. Marnie lives on a

boat on a canal, so who better to take us down one of Britain's

oldest and most beautiful waterways. Welcome to Wild

Tales, Riverside Reflections.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Hi, I'm Marnie. I'm an audio producer by

trade, but at home I'm a boater. I live on a wide beam called the

Alice Rose, and for the past five years the London waterways

have been my home. Today though, I've left my usual stretch of

urban canal behind to explore the Wey Navigations, a 20-mile

blue-green corridor winding its way from Godalming to Thames

lock.

Along the way, I'm hoping to discover the wildlife that

thrives here. And understand why this river matters so much to so

many. And I'm beginning this journey the best way I know how,

by boat.

We're starting today at Dapdune Wharf. We're heading towards a

covered boat shed and I think I can just about see my ride.

As I make my way over, something else catches my eye.

Oh my god, a dragonfly! Look at that dragonfly!

Even a seasoned river dweller like me jumps with excitement

when I see that flash of blue. Anyway, that's got to be Derek,

standing beside an elegant open-topped boat.

Hi Derek, how's it going?

DEREK: Hi, hi, nice to meet you.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: This boat is absolutely beautiful and it's

also got such a stunning name, the Dapdune Bell.

DEREK: Dapdune Bell, named after the wharf here. So it's an

all-electric boat, it's very quiet and smooth.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: That's so different from mine, mine's a

real like... chugger, so you get a sound. But I imagine this is

way better for hearing the sounds of nature as you go up

the river.

DEREK: Yeah, it's completely quiet, so yes, it's really

ideal.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: I'm hoping we get lucky today, because I hear

the river is teeming with wildlife.

DEREK: The grey wagtail nested right above the boat here one

year. We get cormorants, the swans nest, sometimes right in

the creek here as well. They go right past the boat.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: All right, well I can't wait, let's go.

We jump aboard and Derek takes the tiller.

Derek is doing a stellar job of reversing out of quite a narrow

entryway. I'm really impressed.

DEREK: I've done that a few times.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Where are we going to go today? Where are you

taking us?

DEREK: I think we'll be able to get up to Stoke Lock, downstream

towards the Thames, but we're not going that far.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: At the moment we're on... A managed river?

DEREK: It's a natural river, but made navigable, so it's not

quite a canal. There are canal sections where there's a big

meander. They've built a section to cut the corner, so we call it

a Navigation.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: It looks peaceful now, but this stretch

was once a working waterway, with horse-drawn barges carrying

coal and grain to London.

DEREK: So it was one of the earliest navigations in the

country. It dates back to 1653, so it was Sir Richard Weston who

built it, and he saw what the Dutch did with all their canal

systems and thought this is what Surrey needs.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: It took just two years to dig out the 15 mile

stretch from Guildford to Weybridge by hand. The barges

may be long gone but here on the Dapdune Bell the river feels

more alive than ever.

We've just got four little moorhen chicks riding a little

bit in the wave of the boat, clearly just learning how to

swim.

As we cruise along I'm struck by how lush the riverbanks are,

thick with reeds and flowers right up to the water's edge.

It's not just pretty, there's a reason it's left this way.

DEREK: Through the summer plenty of dragonflies and damselflies

lay their eggs on the soft bank so that's why we try and keep a

soft bank for the underwater nymphs and there'll be mayflies

around, plenty of flowers, nectar for them to feed on.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: But not everything growing on the river

bank is as harmless as it looks.

DEREK: One of the plants is Hemlock Water Dropwort, probably

the most poisonous plant in Britain.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: And that's just sitting here amongst this

like idyllic bank?

DEREK: Yeah there's lots of it It's a very common plant.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: We round a bend. On one side, houses,

moored boats and willow trees. And over on the other side sits

the floodplain.

DEREK: Ahead is the original river, and to the left where

we're going to go is one of the canal sections which has been

built to cut the corner.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Looming up ahead, things are starting to

look a little tight.

Literally, we're squeezing under this ridged bridge, and it looks

like there's a whisper. A whisper of space above us.

DEREK: If the level was high, we wouldn't fit under this one when

we've got heavy rain.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: How often does that happen?

DEREK: Through the summer, not too much. But in the winter,

yeah, a lot, definitely.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: And as we're coming out of the bridge, it

feels like it's changed.

DEREK: It's a little narrower. So this is the canal section. So

they don't need to build it any wider than they need.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Oh my god, we're causing waves and they're

so beautiful.

DEREK: Again, because it's a bit narrower, you'll get a little

bit more of the waves.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: As the waves peter out I spy a beautiful red

cottage on the bank ahead.

DEREK: Yeah, so this is Stoke Lock and this is the cottage

where one of the lengthsmen would live.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: What is a lengthsman?

DEREK: So a lengthsman, is called that because they each

look after a length of river. So we've got six along the 20 miles

and they manage the vegetation as one of their main jobs and

also controlling the level of the river using the weirs.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: From here Derek turns the boat around and

we start heading back upstream towards Daptune Wharf. I've got

plans to meet some of the lengthsmen later to find out

more about the role they play in keeping the river flowing.

And something I really love about canals and rivers

generally is since they've become you know less industrial

they have created all of this beautiful space for nature.

DEREK: So one small area I look after is what we call the island

on the wharf. So there's a nice flower meadow there and there

are areas which... used to be overgrown with bramble. There's

nothing wrong with bramble. It's a good source of nectar and

berries and everything. But we cleared a lot of that. And over

the years, the cowslips and bluebells, primroses, they've

all spread. Small things that can make a big difference.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: We are just coming back to Dapdune Wharf. So

we've got another small person interested in waving at the

boat. We've got a wide beam on our left.

DEREK: The building straight ahead is where they used to

store the gunpowder. The original stall was in the centre

of town but as you can imagine the locals didn't like too much

being next to a gunpowder store so they then moved out here.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: And that's so interesting because we're now

literally just drifting back into the wharf and it's so

picturesque, it is completely gorgeous. And it's so peaceful

as we come back in.

DEREK: Yeah just silence yeah.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Oh well Derek, thank you so much. This has been

such a beautiful...

DEREK: Okay yeah, I hope you've enjoyed it. The weather's been

perfect.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: But I think now probably we need to go find

out a bit more about these lengthsmen and hear about how to

control all of this water.

I've just arrived at Unstead Lock. It's what you imagine when

you think of a kind of fairy tale lock. It's manual, it's

wooden, it's got these huge big black and white arms and if

we're lucky we might just get to see one of the narrowboats pass

through them. We're here to meet two of the lengthsmen on the

River Wey.

Whoa, and I think I can see them.

There's a little flat punt coming towards us, mowing their

way through the seed speckled river. Oh, it looks beautiful.

EMMA: Hello, hello!

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Hi, I'm Marnie. Nice to meet you.

EMILY : Hiya, I'm Emily, the Catteshall Lengthsman.

EMMA: I'm Emma, I'm the Lengthsman for the Walsham

stretch.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: I've noticed you've pulled up in this, what I

would describe as a magnificent boat. What is this and what is

it used for?

EMMA: My noble steed. It's our work boat, it's a punt. So we

use these for all sorts of different jobs on the river.

Today I've loaded it with tools or stakes, bits of wood for

doing the work for the day. So it just means we can access

different areas that you obviously couldn't do from the

towpath side.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: I'm a boater and I go up and down canals and

rivers quite often, but I've never heard of a lengthsman

before. What's your job?

EMILY : You might have heard of a ranger type role in the

countryside. So it's sort of a river version of that really

where we're making sure it's all good for the boaters as well as

the towpath users.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: We were talking earlier actually about

the lengthsman versus lengthsperson. Do you have a

preference?

EMILY : Traditionally it would have been lengthsmen and I think

times have changed. It would have been a more male orientated

role. We're not quite 50% male female are we but we're not far

off. So some people might say lengthsperson but I don't think

anybody minds too much.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: So Emily you've turned up in this punt

with all of these tools. What have you just come from doing?

EMILY : So I've been out with a group of lovely volunteers

today. They come out with me every Wednesday and we have been

repairing a dog hole. It's basically bank erosion from

visiting dogs that go in and out of the river at the same point.

So they do then tend to find the next spot to start working on.

So it's a never-ending task.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: And there's not just dog holes to repair.

There's Floating Pennywort clogging the water, Himalayan

Balsam weakening the banks and Ragwort, which is toxic to

livestock. So the lengthsmen and volunteers are out here clearing

weeds, cutting back branches and keeping the towpath open for

everyone.

You mentioned that it's about keeping this waterway usable for

boats, but is it also about keeping it usable for nature?

EMILY : We did actually just come across some nesting

pheasants, we believe, so we swiftly moved away from that

area just now. But yeah, it's one of those things we'll do a

bit more cutback in the wintertime. I've got a family of

ducklings at the moment, Mallards. They've been hanging

around the same spot so it's quite nice seeing them most days

at the moment as they get bigger and hopefully survive.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Always that thing when you see birds on the

river of like you're like please let there be five ducklings

tomorrow.

EMILY : Yeah you count and you keep hoping that there's the

same count every day yeah. So another really important part of

our role is our water level management here of the

navigation and Emma's been doing it a fair bit longer than I

have.

EMMA: I feel like we've actually had a luxurious April because

most of us have more or less slept whereas quite often I have

days and days on end where I'm potentially checking water

levels day and night every hour and a half, two hours. It's like

having a baby that never grows up. You're still tied into the

schedule of the river and even though it's been dry your brain

is still thinking, oh I need to check that.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: How do you manage that water level if it is

over, what do you do?

EMMA: It's like pulling a plug out of the bath. So I've got a

set of four everyday weirs and another three big floodgates. So

if my level is too high, I will open one of my weir gates

slightly and I will send some of that water down through the

backwater to settle the level in the navigation and equally going

in the other direction I might be closing in to raise the level

up.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: With only six lengthsmen managing the river,

communication is everything.

EMMA: Emily will usually be the first to start opening up and I

know that, give or take, I'm about seven hours behind being

further down the river so I've quite often phoned Emily in the

middle of the night where we're trying to work out if we're

going to get any sleep or not.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Technology has made things a little easier as

cameras now watch key points along the Navigation.

EMMA: So it has made a big difference in how we're able to

keep an eye on things, but I'm afraid you do still just look

out the window.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: It's exhausting work, but as Emma

says, unpredictability is part of the appeal.

EMMA: It's junk food on the go, it's bad cereal, it's occasional

naps and it's relentless. As terrifying as it is, that's also

part of the joy. There are no two days the same here. And

after 15 plus years, you still don't know when you get up in

the morning what's going to happen during the day. And I

think that's why people love it.

EMILY : Yes, it's hard. But then I've been doing water level

management, walking across one of the meadows and I've seen a

barn owl, you know, sort of five o'clock in the morning. So

there's all these little things that I just wouldn't be anywhere

else other than out here.

EMMA: Best office in the world by far.

EMILY : Oh, definitely.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: I've left Emily and Emma to their rounds

and I am now back at Dapdune Wharf but beyond the trees I can

hear the faint sounds of laughter and yoga.

PERDITA: On the out-breath we're bringing our knees in, on the

in-breath we're bringing our feet back down.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: In the distance I can see a few people

stretching, lying down on mats. What we're on here is the

island. It feels a little bit magical. You've got buttercups

littered throughout the floor. You can just see some

forget-me-nots on the side, like with these little blue pops.

PERDITA: On the in-breath, put your feet to the floor. On the

out-breath, bring your arms back down.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Every week here at Dapdune Wharf, there's

an outdoor yoga session run by Dose Of Nature. It's an

NHS-backed project that helps people living with anxiety,

depression, or other challenges to their well-being. The idea is

simple. Use green spaces to slow down, breathe and reconnect.

Among those taking part today is Stephen.

STEPHEN : Relaxation. Peace of mind. It puts you in a good

place for the day or the week. I suffer with social anxiety and I

find nature and the yoga helps with my anxiety. It puts me in a

better mood.

But sometimes it's just nice to lay down with my eyes shut on

the grass or against a tree.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: For Stephen and many others, these sessions

are more than just movement and breathing. They are a chance to

step away from everyday pressures, lie beneath trees and

feel part of something bigger than yourself. Leading the

session today is Perdita, not just a yoga instructor, but also

one of Dose Of Nature's trained nature guides.

PERDITA: It's wonderful. I mean, the daisies, the buttercups, the

wind, the birds, the chiff-chaff, the children on the

River Wey, and people who seem to... want to share and enjoy it

with me so that's pretty good for me.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Throughout the class people were laughing and

seemed really relaxed so how did you create this space?

PERDITA: I think nature has got a lot to answer for in that when

we're on an island and this place holds you and what's very

heartening and moving is that some of these people have been

doing yoga right the way through the year and it's pretty cold in

the winter.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: Dose Of Nature isn't just about yoga. It's part

of a wider eight-week programme where patients are referred by

their doctor and paired with a trained nature guide.

PERDITA: Dose Of Nature is a wonderfully simple concept but

the impact is huge and it's a frame of mind which is that

nature can heal.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: And it isn't just a feeling, there's science

behind it too. Why time in nature changes how we think and

how we feel.

PERDITA: It's not just you know woo woo, it's about fractals and

the soil chemicals and the tree chemicals and the awe and the

sound. But it's just giving that exposure and sitting with them

and opening their senses to it again.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: And the results speak for themselves.

PERDITA: I understand that the impact is always almost 99% very

positive. There is change and that's really gratifying.

Because all we're doing is reintroducing them to something

which is all around us.

MARNIE WOODMEADE: As I leave the island behind, the sounds of

laughter and yoga drift away through the trees. And I'm

struck by how many ways this river connects us. From spotting

dragonflies and baby ducklings from the electric boat, to

hearing how the lengthsmen gently manage and care for the

water day and night. To finding unexpected stillness here, under

the shade of the trees.

The River Wey has been serving its communities for almost 400

years and it's still doing just that, a blue-green ecosystem

alive with nature, history and the people who care for it.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Thanks for listening to this episode of

Wild Tales. If you liked it, why not give us a like or follow?

We'll be back soon with another episode in a couple of weeks.

But if you can't wait that long, why not check out our other

nature podcast, Nature Fix. Or if you like your history too,

there's Back When. See you next time.