Natural flood management project 2024/25
In July 2024, EKWT met representatives from Yorkshire Water and The Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, who were overseeing the Natural Flood Management project along with EKWT at Bardsey Fields.

Originally, two drain pipes took the surface water from Bardsey School’s roofs, playgrounds and car park under Bardsey Fields Nature Reserve into the mill tale below. (The water that flows from a millwheel after turning it, or the channel in which the water flows.)  With permission and funding from Yorkshire Water these two drain pipes have been broken and the water diverted up on to the surface of the field. This will make the upper part of the field wetter. By providing a more natural pathway for the water this will reduce the flow of water into the beck, improve water quality and help alleviate flooding downstream.

Before these works took place certain criteria had to be met.

   1. Eight cross slope leaky barriers were installed below the break out points to slow the water flow. For the construction, through the ongoing Trust management works in Ox Close wood, the volunteers were able to supply 400, two metre logs, 130 fascines and 440 willow cuttings from Keswick Marsh Reserve. With the addition of some sheep’s wool, all were wired together and stabilised by wooden posts. 

   2. Three in-stream leaky barriers were installed in the mill tale. During normal water flow they will have no effect, but in high rainfall they will hold back and slow the flow downstream to Bardsey and Collingham.

  3.  Three woodland copses were planted at strategic points to help absorb the surface water with post and wire fencing for protection.

  4. Two new cross slope hedges were planted, with post and wire fences to protect them from cows and deer.

  5.  Eleven 8x3m parkland enclosures with post and rail fences were erected across the site to protect a mixture of what one day will be mature trees and shrubs.

In the future these actions will help to increase habitat diversity and biodiversity across the field, slow the flow of water and improve the health of the beck below.

In time, the reserve will develop into a wood pasture and parkland habitat. This is characterized by open-grown, often old trees in a grazed environment, representing a rich mosaic of habitats including grassland, fen and scrub with messy edges, managed through grazing to maintain its open structure.

We would like to thank all those who have given their time to make this project possible. Grateful thanks go to Yorkshire Water for providing the funding; to our friends, the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust who have overseen the project;  to Dan Carne, our self-employed consultant from Woodmeadow Makers; to The National Wealth Fund; the Yorkshire Rewilding Group; Bardsey Primary Academy students; Open Country, and our local community families and individuals who along with the Trust’s army of Friday volunteers have given their time to support all the tasks including the planting of 3,000 trees and shrubs of 27 different native species across the site.