From Source to Sea: following the River Parrett. Part 3.

 Our third exploration of the River Parrett was in October 2023 and began in Bridgwater where we left off in July. The river is pretty-well obscured as it goes through the town, and we met it at the old docks where at one time two locks opened the river to two canal basins leading to the Bridgwater to Taunton Canal.

The river at low water is an un-navigable-looking muddy ditch! the cement walls  of the locks leading to the basins of the Bridgwater to Taunton Canal are centre picture.

Bridgwater Docks noticeboard. The docks were in use until 1971 but the locks giving access to the river are now in disrepair.

                                One of the two locks leading to the canal basins.

Sea-going ships would unload cargoes such as coal and iron into barges to be poled along the canal to Taunton or up the river to Langport. Out-going cargoes included wood and wool. The Bailey Bridges used in the War were constructed in Bridgwater.

Note the bridge leading from this outer basin to the inner one. It was once a lifting bridge to allow traffic to pass.

The inner basin is now a small marina. Pleasure craft can go up the canal (seen at the far end of the basin) to Taunton.

We resumed our exploration of the Parrett, going NW out of Bridgwater. The iron bollards remain where waiting ships could moor while waiting for the tide. We heard the sudden staccato outburst of a Cetti's Warbler in the reeds alongside the river here. 

The first village we came to after leaving Bridgwater was the very neat and tidy Chilton Trinity, named after the parish church of Trinity All Saints. Unfortunately the church was locked, with no indication of where to get a key. It was I find, in the very sparse information, dated from the 12th Century. It was built in an odd mix of a very coarse-grained  red sandstone, and a mixture of textured grey sand- and mud-stones.

The inhabitants of this spick and span place were very jealous of their space, with 'no parking' notices everywhere, even beside a ditch!

We then ventured down a track between a series of pools which were the flooded remains of old clay pits. Some were apparently now 'Fishing Pools' and some, according to the map were Sutton Pools, a Somerset Wildlife Trust reserve. However, we again drew a blank, with no reserve information notices and only chained and padlocked gates. We drove on down towards the river, only to find that access barred too, but passed a series of long green plastic netted 'tents' which puzzled us.

Tony stopped to ask a workman about them. It turned out that they were supposed to be 'Bat Fences' to encourage bats to fly across the gap where a length of hedge had been removed, presumably to enable this track-widening (or car parking lay-by?) area to be made.

To rejoin the river, one has to drive though the small town of Cannington. An old convent , Court House became in 1919 the home of the Somerset Farm Institute where Tony spent a happy year in the 1950s. He still comments about the handsome red stone-walled garden belonging to the Institute. The convent for Benedictine Nuns dated from the 12th Century. The Farm Institute is now the Somerset College of Agriculture & Horticulture.

The next port of call was to the little riverside village of Combwich. This is looking upstream.

 Looking downstream. Combwich Wharf was developed initially to unload heavy loads from ships to lorries bound for the nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point a few miles away on the coast of Bridgwater Bay.

More recently further construction at the wharf is enabling more enormous loads to be taken to the new power station, Hinkley C

Combwich Wharf in mid-October 2023. Further construction beyond, is on-going.

The small village, as well as other villages in the area, and especially Bridgwater, have benefitted enormously from the jobs created, the demand for housing and the income provided by the many aspects of the development of Hinkley C.  

    It was misty by the time we reached the new Steart Marshes Reserve at the estuary of the Parrett where it runs into the northern end of Bridgwater Bay past the busy resort of Burnham-on-Sea. In the distance looming out of the mist, is the Nuclear Power Station Hinkley Point A & B with the construction site of C on the left.  

The reserve belongs to the Wildlife & Wetlands Trust who bought the farmland, following extensive local consultation, and after considerable excavation of pools and channels, the big river bank was breached in 2012, allowing the tide to flow over the old grazing land which rapidly turned into salt marsh. The first Avocets nested there in 2015, followed by breeding Black-necked Stilts in 2020, just two of the great numbers of  wetland birds which use the extensive reserve at different times of the year. Within half an hour of our arrival in October we saw a Great White Heron and later, a Spoonbill. The wetlands are also now recognized as a dragonfly hotspot. Access is freely available along well-made paths leading to several new and well-appointed hides.

Walking towards Steart Point along the peripheral path around the reserve.

Looking across the saltmarsh towards the river. This area now becomes inundated for great stretches at high water on a big tide.

The new Parrett Hide. This replaces the original converted shipping containers which at first were used as hides.

The big picture window shown here with the semi-circular seat looks out over the marsh and towards the river, as shown in the next picture.

This hide is 1.8km easy walking from the main car-park which is open daily (but with a height restriction for campervans between 4.30pm till 9am)

Car parking is free and there are loos on site.

The river seen here has opened up from its earlier muddy ditch to a wide, navigable waterway when the tide floods. The salt marsh in the foreground is also inundated at the highest tide.