Thames Landscape Strategy - Hampton to Kew -

Wind in the Willows

“Suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver—glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated”.

Imagine if you had never seen a river before. What would it feel like to stumble across one for the first time as is depicted in this account from Kenneth Grahame’s classic novel ‘The Wind in the Willows’? I would imagine quite incredible. The passage narrates Moles original encounter with the river and is taken from the opening few paragraphs of the book which remarkably celebrates its 100th birthday this summer.

The Wind in the Willows tells the idyllic tale of four young chums who spend their time messing about on the River Thames – or as Ratty so wonderfully puts it ‘by it and with it and on it and in it!’. A century on and the Thames is still enthralling visitors of all ages, who take advantage of the summer sun (we have had some), to enjoy the river. Whether the visit is by boat, by bike or foot the Thames is always a constant source of delight – over-flowing with beauty, fascinating wildlife and history.

On the surface things along the river seem not to have changed much in the 100-years since Kenneth Grahame published his fictional account of the Thames but delve a little deeper and river life is not quite as rosy as it was.

Take the fortunes of the book’s star for example – Ratty, the loveable little water vole. In Kenneth Grahame’s lifetime there were tens of millions of these small creatures scurrying along almost every waterway in the country. Even in the 1980s numbers were around the ten million mark but sadly by the turn of the millennium their population had crashed to less than one million with large areas of the UK completely empty (fortunately we are rather lucky in our part of the world, the River Crane supporting a large population).

Their rapid decline follows a familiar and sorry pattern that has affected so many of our native species – the drop in numbers due to habitat loss and competition from introduced ‘alien’ species. Water voles need wetlands to thrive – water meadows, reedbeds, muddy riverbanks, creeks and shady riverside woods. Most of these valuable habitats have been lost, drained or over-engineered during the C20th. The Thames may look wild but there is actually very little ‘natural’ riverbank left. Without a suitable home animal populations will quickly decline. The introduction of mink to Britain’s waterways sealed the fate of the water vole which unfortunately are the perfect meal for these veracious hunters.

Recent conservation efforts however, have reversed the trend and water vole numbers are slowly beginning to recover. It will be a long journey but through the re-creation of wetland habitats and the control of introduced pests, wetland species are making a slow but steady recovery. There are many of these conservation initiatives going on in our part of the world, along the Thames, in our Royal parks and on the River Crane.

To find out more about waterway conservation and the wonderful species that live along the Thames visit our website on www.thames-landscape-strategy.org.uk and follow the links to the ‘Wildlife by the Thames’ leaflet or pick up a copy from the Tourist Information Centre.

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