Tower and Town, April 2016

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Conservation

Improving the River Kennet: Care and Conservation . The important conservation work going on at Marlborough College in collaboration with Action for the River Kennet (ARK).

ARK has been working with Marlborough College’s Estates Department and groups of students for the past three years. The aim is to restore a section of the river that runs from the Pewsey Road Bridge all the way to Manton.

One of ARK’s original aims was to reduce the amount of water abstracted from the river for the inhabitants of Swindon. After many years of campaigning, Thames Water is building a pipeline to connect north and south Swindon and to supply both from a reservoir near Abingdon. This will reduce the amount of water which leaves the Kennet valley.

They are involved in various projects which are described below.

Under Fox’s Bridge there is a weir which was initially installed to raise the river level for the creation of the two artificial ponds. However, this was slowing the flow of water and preventing upstream migration of fish. To solve this, a V-shaped section was cut out of the weir.

The team are narrowing the river by staking bundles of woody material parallel to the banks. The benefit of this is faster flow rates and the scouring out of silt, which is replaced by gravel in which trout lay their eggs. Faster flows should also encourage the growth of riverweed, which provides ideal habitat for the invertebrates which fish feed on.

They have built small obstructions in the middle of the river. The effect of these is similar to that of narrowing the river.

Action for the River Kennet is a truly commendable and respectable organisation and this work in Marlborough is only part of what they do. Keeping our rivers healthy is vital and without ARK we may lose a major chalk stream. Their projects are on-going and will continue for the foreseeable future.

James Barnes, Nikita Tsyganov