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.