The River Path The River Path
Getting Close: River Walks
Walking can give us time to savour, to regain intimacy, there is no better way to enter the subtle world of local distinctiveness.
Very often bridges are the only places from which to get a good view of the river, and for people who can't walk very far, they provide good vantage points from which to watch the birds and other wild life.
These bridges had speaking countenances. Every projection in each was worn down to obtuseness partly by the weather, more by friction from generations of loungers, whose toes and heels had from year to year made restless movements against these parapets, as they stood there meditating on the aspects of affairs.
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy.
In town and country to walk littoral footpaths and tow paths can be difficult enough, but many streams and rivers seem to have no defined route beside them. In 'Afoot in England' W.H. Hudson is forthright about our deep relations and our frustrations -
The stream invites us to follow: the impulse is so common that it might be set down as an instinct; and certainly there is no more fascinating pastime than to keep company with a river from its source to the sea. Unfortunately that is not easy in a country where running waters have been enclosed, which should run as free as the rain and sunshine to all, and were once free, when England was England still, before landowners annexed them, even as they annexed or stole the commons and shut up the footpaths. We are drawn to water, but are often thwarted by not being able to get near to it. Agricultural land by rivers is much sought after and the best stretches of river for game fishing are jealously guarded by those who own or lease the fishing rights. Water bailiffs are employed to keep the poachers and wanderers at bay.
Angling is one of the most popular pastimes and angling societies have done much to extend access for themselves as well as championing clean rivers. Anglers name each reach and know intimately the behaviour of their rivers in different weathers and seasons.
People who work on boats as well as those who spend their leisure hours on rivers and canals gain knowledge of the nuances of different rivers, tidal and not. Working boats were developed especially to deal with the conditions peculiar to different rivers and the job in hand. For example flat bottomed boats such as the Parrett flatner, the salmon punt of Christchurch harbour, the gun punt of Essex, Fenland barge or Teign keel - each differs in detail. The pontoons, hards, slipways, moorings, jetties are equally particular.
Leisure boats abound on the Broads, along the Severn and the Thames, but many small towns and villages had their leisure boating facilities. It is exciting to hear that an attempt is being made in Wimborne, Dorset, to re-establish boating on the Stour. It will bring a different perspective to both people and place.
The Thames Path is extending as a linear long distance companion to the river - 180 miles from the source in Gloucestershire to the Thames Barrier at Woolwich - driven initially by the Countryside Commission. Its successor body, The Countryside Agency, understanding our need to stroll along the banks, is keen for local authorities to create new footpaths by rivers, especially from towns into the countryside.
In creating new paths, some more accessible to the disabled, it is vital to add a new layer of local distinctiveness. Gates, stiles, surfaces, seats, signs, scale - all need to be carefully considered, so that the footpath pays homage to this river or stream, and helps to add to the details of the place.
Common Ground has worked with Peter Randall-Page to explore the creation of new layers of local distinctiveness through sculpture along footpaths in north Devon: 'Granite Song' a worked split boulder sits on a small island in the Teign (right). You can find out how to buy a book of this proect and read more about it here.
Local Authority initiatives along, for example, the Tees in Yorkshire have explored enhancing local distinctiveness through imaginative gates, stiles and seats, and the River Parrett Trail in Somerset also supported artists in sculpture, craft, poetry and song.
Those engineers of the imagination, Welfare State International, in creating their sensitively designed new art centre, the Lanternhouse, have taken care to resurrect, after years of culverting, the swift flowing Town Beck as the centrepiece to their garden in the middle of Ulverston in Cumbria.
There are many books of walks alongside rivers. From the South and West you might like to look at the following:
Anne-Marie Edwards: Waterside Walks in Dorset (Countryside Books, 2000)
Jane Fitzgerald: Off The Map - around the Dart, Avon and Salcombe-Kingsbridge Estuaries (Green Books, 2000)
Edward R Griffiths: The New Stour Valley Path (Green Fields Books, 1998)
From Rivers Rhynes and Running Brooks -
Local Distinctiveness and the water in our lives
Common Ground, 2000.
You can order a copy from Common Ground.
See our publication pages for details.
