Welsden Reach Appeal Registered charity no. 1198472

A river is not supposed to be brown.

The Brenna ran clear until the weir pool silted and two banks went in 2019. Putting a river right is not complicated: fence the banks, plant them, rake the gravel, count what comes back. It is just slow, and it is done in waders, not in meetings.

£41,380 raised of £60,000

689 donors · appeal closes 31 March 2027

Give to the appeal See where it goes

The problem

What is wrong, measured

We do not do vague. These are the numbers from the reach between Welsden Bridge and Millers Meadow, and they are the numbers this appeal exists to change.

3.1km
of the Welsden reach rated Poor by the Environment Agency. It is the only stretch of the Brenna below Moderate.
212hrs
of storm overflow into the river above the bridge in 2025, logged by our own volunteers' monitors, not estimated.
0redds
trout spawning nests counted below the weir last winter. In 1998 the same walk counted forty.
38tonnes
of silt a year off two collapsed banks, smothering the gravel that trout and lamprey spawn in.

The work

The same water, four years on

Millers Meadow was fenced, planted and re-graded between 2021 and 2025, at £38 a metre. Drag the gauge board across and see what that bought. The unrestored reach below Fentley outfall still looks like the left-hand side.

The restored reach at Millers Meadow: a clear stream winding between planted, grassy banks
2025 Millers Meadow, restored
The unrestored reach below Fentley outfall: silt-brown water against a collapsed, bare bank
2021 Below Fentley outfall

The board is a river gauge from the reach it measures. Drag it, or focus it and use the arrow keys.Two photographs of the reach: restored above, unrestored below.

What it costs

What your money does. Exactly.

Restoration is bought by the metre, the tonne and the tree, so that is how we ask for it. Last year 92p in every pound went on the river itself; the accounts are on the Charity Commission register.

£10

Rears and releases 25 brown trout fry below Welsden weir, from Brenna broodstock.

Give £10

£25

Fences and plants four metres of bare bank: willow whips, stakes, and a year of checks.

Give £25

£60

Buys a tonne of washed gravel, raked into a spawning riffle by the work parties.

Give £60

£150

Kits out one work party for a season: waders, gloves, loppers and the first aid box.

Give £150
Gloved hands setting a rooted whip into riverbank soil
Bare-root planting on the Fentley bank. Every whip is £1.20 and most of them take.

Work parties

Bring boots

Second Saturday of the month, 9.30 to 1.00. No experience needed and no standing around being thanked. Tools, waders and tea provided; bring boots that can get wet and a coat that can get worse.

  1. Sat 12 Sep

    Willow spiling at Millers Meadow

    6 places

    Take a place

  2. Sat 10 Oct

    Gravel raking below the weir

    9 places

    Take a place

  3. Sat 14 Nov

    Bare-root planting, Fentley bank

    12 places

    Take a place

  4. Sat 12 Dec

    Winter bird and outfall survey

    Full

Volunteers with sacks clearing litter from a riverbank
The October party, clearing the town reach. Forty sacks before lunch.

Donate

Give to the appeal

Every gift is spent on the reach this page describes. If the appeal passes its target, the surplus starts the next reach upstream; it does not disappear into admin.

Clean gravel under shallow, clear water
A raked riffle after one winter. The gravel stays clean when the banks hold.
Amount

£25 fences and plants four metres of bank.

Frequency

You will get one email receipt and a report when the reach is done. No newsletters unless you ask.