THE QUIET OF THE RIVER

LOOKING BACK AT...

The River Avon at Batheaston

Writer and photographer Jane Gifford remembers the life that swarmed around the River Avon at Batheaston just 30 years ago. This precious spot is now safeguarded from future development, but it’s in a modern reincarnation, a world away from the spreading water meadows and bustling river banks of recent history. Photographs by Jane Gifford

Iloved the quiet of the River Avon at Batheaston. The solace of the river gliding slowly by soothed away any troubles. You seldom passed a soul on the river-side path. The view was constantly changing, as the mist rose and fell in the valley. A kingfisher often flashed by in shades of vivid blue and red. You might see one perched on a fishing post over-looking the water.

The river-banks were riddled with holes, nesting sites for these water birds and for the swallows and swifts, which swooped and banked in the skies. Occasionally, a grass snake swam across the water. Moorhens hid amongst the reeds. Water-voles, too. Cows came down to the shallows to drink. There was no formal path on the water-meadow side, but local anglers would find a sheltered spot to dream away the day beneath their umbrellas.

The river swarmed with life. Dragonflies, mayflies and damselflies dried their wings in my garden. Wildflowers lined the river-banks. Teasels, bullrushes, purple-loosestrife and water lilies were commonplace, evening primroses, water-rushes and king-cups. The banks were lined with trees, especially willows, which showed the marks of centuries of management. They were regularly cut down above the heads of the cattle (pollarded) and the poles which grew back were harvested to make hurdles or use for fuel. Hurdles shored up the river banks to stop erosion. Alders were festooned with golden catkins in spring, unusual for being deciduous and bearing cones.

I was then compiling a book, The Celtic Wisdom of Trees. I drove all over Ireland looking for aspen trees, only to spot some on the river bank directly below my bedroom window. Their autumn leaves shone yellow and burnt orange. The aspens have been felled now. The wildflowers ploughed into the soil. In their place, boggy ground and pointed railings. Householders now have their view across the river.

In winter and early spring, the river regularly burst its banks, spreading out over the water-meadows, only to recede again, leaving behind its cargo of rich alluvial mud. The pasture has been saved, but the water-meadows are sadly lost. The river has been straightened, the sides banked up. The muddy footpath is eroded and the shallows

The river swarmed with life. Dragonflies, mayflies and damselflies dried their wings in my garden

Willow and alder on the misty riverbank in summer, with the water meadows beyond

Willow (Salix alba) with ducks in winter

gone. Sheep have replaced the cows. The sky is now virtually devoid of chattering swallows and swifts. The lapwings, herons and dragonflies have gone. Most of the trees, too. The fritillaries on the water-meadows at Cricklade are a rare reminder of how it once was.

Batheaston is now the ‘paddle-boarding centre’ of Bath. We have gained a café and lost a post office. The view across the meadows from the opposite bank has been interrupted by a wide tarmac path which leads into town, ‘The Green Corridor’. This is an undeniably popular route, teeming with walkers, dogs and bicycles –all funnelled across the water by the new bridge. ‘The Bridge over the River Kwai’ locals dubbed it. The rowers have been joined by canoeists and wild swimmers.

Those who did not know the river only 30 years ago still love this spot for its accessibility. The National Trust intend to replant the missing trees and save some of the land from further development. Wildlife and anglers have been replaced by joggers, bicycles and dogs. The Green Corridor is proving popular. But I miss the peace of the river. I miss my favourite local walk and finding a space in the riverside car park. I miss the earth underfoot and the centuries of history in the trees. n

Jane Gifford is a writer and photographer specialising in travel, garden, wildlife and environmental issues. janegifford.net nationaltrust.org.uk/bathampton-meadows

Bath’s World Heritage Setting is under threat

South Stoke Plateau is a beautiful component of the Cotswold Landscape and forms part of the Setting of the Bath World Heritage Site. It is under threat from a proposal to build over 500 houses.

Cross the Midford Road from the Cross Keys pub in Combe Down, go through the stile behind the bus stop and you will be on the edge of the South Stoke Plateau. You will also be standing on the Wansdyke, an ancient earthwork that runs along the entire northern edge of the plateau and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. Look south west across the open fields and you can see where developers are hoping to build an estate of over 500 houses. The plateau is a key part of the Cotswold landscape, arable land subdivided by dry stone walls, and is part of the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It extends south towards the village of South Stoke and the steep slopes of the Cam Brook Valley. South Stoke is little changed from the 1950s when Nikolaus Pevsner, the famous architectural historian, described it as: “The happy sight of a village still entirely un-suburbanised, though only two miles from the main station of a city”. The plateau is widely used for walking by locals and visitors. On a spring morning you can hear skylarks singing high overhead. On a summer evening flocks of swifts can be seen feeding over the fields. At night, bats, including the very rare greater-horseshoe bat, feed along the southern edge of the plateau coming out from their roosts in Sulis Manor and its outbuildings.

Walk west across the plateau and past Sulis Manor built in the Arts & Crafts style, and you come across something very different. You will find a massive building site on what was once green fields. The land was sold by the Hignett Family Trust to the developers Countryside Properties in April 2021 for £19.8 million. 171 houses are now being built there in a development known as Sulis Down, ironically named after what has been destroyed. The plans do not stop at this. The Hignett Family Trust have now submitted plans to build another 300 houses on the eastern fields. It would put an estate of houses that goes right up to the edge of the South Stoke Conservation Area. The ‘entirely un-suburbanised’ quality of South Stoke that Pevsner praised, would be destroyed forever. Skylarks would be lost from the entire plateau. ‘The green setting of the city in a hollow in the hills’, one of the key seven guiding principles that denote Bath’s status as a UNESCO World Heritage City, would be compromised. To reach this proposed development a road would be built in front of Sulis Manor. This would mean removing over 70 trees and demolishing outbuildings where seven different species of bats roost. All the traffic from these houses would have to arrive and leave via Combe Hay Lane, already a bottleneck, on to the Odd Down Park and Ride roundabout before joining the queues at the top of the Wellsway to get in to Bath. The south of Bath already has major issues with traffic, and this is before the impact following completion of the houses on the western plateau and the 700 houses at Mulberry Park. And all of this is at conflict with the current Bath Climate and Ecological Emergency.

Sulis Manor and the gardens have been under threat of demolition to make way for new houses

171 houses are being built on the western plateau and inside the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and there are plans to extend this development across the whole plateau

In the past three years B&NES has delivered 3,100 new houses, exceeding their house building target by 84%, and achieving this by building almost entirely on brownfield land. In addition, there are still other brownfield sites like the former Bath Press site on Lower Bristol Road which is in the pipeline for development.

Access to green space is critical for us all. The last two demanding years particularly have taught us how important open landscape is for our health and well-being. We do not need to build on green fields to provide new homes, particularly if they remain unaffordable to first-time buyers.

Too often we look back and think – how did they allow that to happen? Well now the responsibility falls on us. The South Stoke P lateau is a special place to be protected for future generations. It must not be destroyed. We must fight to save it before it is too late, and we must do so now. You can make your objections by writing to B&NES about this planning application. For more information, help and advice on how to object please visit the South of Bath Alliance web site at www.soba.org.uk.