unclej said:
Tripod said:
Could this really be a case of "restoration of perennial flow ---------" at all? Has there ever been such flow? Can there be any idea of what the river bed looked like and what the natural drainage was like before the present, completely manmade river bed was put in place and before that when Lathkilldale Sough was driven?. It is worth noting that Magpie mine was operating and there was still mining taking place in Lathkill Dale after the river was built, for fishing purposes, in the form we see it now.
The White Peak Rivers Group is made up of all the agencies, including English Heritage, Natural England, Environment Agency, Peak Park as well as many private interests. The group has been meeting for the last two years. This public meeting at Aldern House is designed to present the findings and conclusions from those WPRG meetings, and to give you the chance to ask questions. It is the third of five meetings being held to discuss proposals, with meetings already held in Monyash and Over Haddon. The support for flow to be returned to the Lathkill is tremedous. All that is being suggested is a return to a state of affairs that existed in 1880. Any control to flow in any sough will be reversable allowing also a provision for access.
From what I can gather the surface flow of the Lathkill in the area concerned is largely due to manmade interference (puddling, etc.) with a river naturally drying up during drier periods due to flowing underground through an extensive series of natural caves. Mining would appear to being blamed for this, but I am sure that the Lathkill has been drying up for a very long time as the caves will have been forming for thousands of years, certainly for far longer than any mining in the area.
This behaviour is common with any streams or rivers flowing over limestone areas. For exmple, the Manifold / Hamps in the Peak and various places in the Yorkshire Dales, (I'm sure there are others in the Mendips and Wales), it is normal behaviour. As far as I am concerned, any effort to try and get the Lathkill to flow over the surface all year round is going to be very expensive and doomed to failure.
Swallets in the Manifold were concreted over in the early 1900's, it didn't work for long, those in the Hamps were filled with clay from the Cauldon Low quarries, (I met someone in the 80's who was involved in doing it), that didn't work either, the Hamps river bed is like a sieve! (See section 3.3 of my Manifold / Hamps conservation audit for more details.)
If you want to stop having to rescue fish every year (like in the video) then build some sort of weir that will stop them migrating upstream and then getting stranded when the river dries up each year. That will save everybody a lot of time and money! Concentrate on improving the current permanent flow stretches of the river and maybe making some spawning areas where the river is permanently flowing. (Around Bubble Springs maybe?)
Regards Mel. DCA Conservation Officer.