On our recent nine-day pilgrimage, we took a staggered journey exploring the entire length of the River Lea on foot. The walk was a foundational event to establish Rights for the River Lea and what a journey it was!
Over the course of the 92km walked, we celebrated the wonder and wildlife of the River Lea, making many new connections with fellow pilgrims, and holding daily ceremonies to bless the river and declaring its right to remain unpolluted. As expected, we discovered a number of issues affecting the health, safety and well-being of the river and its human and more-than-human communities. These included inappropriate development of riparian habitats, sewage pollution and the restriction of public access by private fisheries and other enterprises. More than ever, we feel compelled to act for our river.
We couldn’t have anticipated what happened very shortly after our pilgrimage ended – in both Waltham Forest and Hackney the Green Party took overall control of the councils for the first time in history! Before the election, Hackney Green Party committed to granting Rights for the River Lea in its manifesto. This was partly thanks to the work of two incredibly committed and inspiring Save Lea Marshes members – Celia and Sally – who both took part in the pilgrimage.
This political change has further built momentum to finally recognise the true worth of our river, both legally and spiritually. These concepts may seem far removed, yet in some ways they are like two wings of the same bird, there must be recognition of a river’s value as a living entity and the accompanying legal rights enshrined to protect it as such.
Can it be done? Well, just last week, in a UK-first, River Rights were granted to the River Wye. Recognising the river as a living ecosystem, its intrinsic rights were declared as follows:
💙 The right to flow
💚 The right to biodiversity
💙 The right to be free from pollution
💚 The right to regenerate
💙 The right to be represented
Client Earth described the move as “a meaningful step towards protecting one of the UK’s most well-known rivers, which has been suffering from pollution due to industrial farming run-off and sewage spills.”
Sewage pollution also blights the River Lea. Our journey began in Leagrave, the source of the River Lea. Here, and all through Luton, its crystal clear stream meanders through the urban surroundings and its light gravel bed, sometimes populated by shoals of small fish, is visible. We were shocked by the number of drainage outfalls stationed all along this beautiful part of the river. Road run-off is an under recognised source of chemical river pollution. Visible pollution included the everyday plastic pollution discarded in parks and streets, as well as clothing and other material that had been dumped directly into the water.
On the second day of the pilgrimage, we were fortunate to stumble across an excellent exhibition in a local church about the pollution of chalk streams. The artists informed us that this rolling exhibition is being taken to Parliament this month.
At Harpenden, a huge sewage works cut off access to a large section of the river. Until we reached the river towpath that runs from Hertford, it was sobering how little of the river we could access in places, many miles were cut off by private fisheries, particularly in Hertfordshire. and fences sometimes obscured industrial activity that felt very out of place and contrasted with bucolic river scenes of wild abundance that we had the joy to experience in other places.
Walk leader Peter had the pleasure of spotting an Otter between Wheathampstead and Welwyn Garden City.
Peter took samples daily to test for river pollution at every stage of the pilgrimage. The results show a very mixed picture. Pilgrim Lucy gifted us an indigenuous American blessing at the start of our journey, where we collected a bottle of unpolluted water from the chalk stream to pour into each stretch of the river we walked, the cermony we enacted ‘reminding’ the river of its essential purity. In some places, this reminder was poignantly needed, including our home patch, the lower Lea Valley, where the readings for phosphate were predictably high, matching our monthly results taken at Friends Bridge by Hackney Marshes.
One of the most egregious harms to our river occurred in the Olympic Park. The tidal part of the river, which ran through the park at the demolished Eastway Cycle Circuit (variously called the Channelsea River, the Waterworks River and the Temple Mills Stream) and once drove the Temple Mills, was culverted and connected to a combined sewer overflow turning it into a sewer .
On our final day of the pilgrimage, we were welcome to the historic House Mill, celebrating its 250-year anniversary, where we were informed of the damage that impounding the tidal River Lea had done. Since the artificial damming of the Old River Lea, the House Mill had flooded on more than one occassion – an event that had not happened when the Lea was tidal at that location. The creation of Prescotts Lock had really been intended, we were informed, for cosmetic reasons, to keep a steady level for the river so it did not appear ‘muddy’ during the Olympic Games. The organisers cared little for the environmental legacy this left. Nonetheless, some wildlife could still be spotted close to Three Mills, including a delightful Grey Wagtail on the banks of the Lea.
The pilgrimage has brought us both a vivid portrait of the river from source to mouth and a snapshot of the pollution issues being caused by the pressures of development, sewage spills, industrial and agricultural activity and human misuse. This will be furthered and brought to life by artist Sarah Stirk of Wildlight Global, who is working in collaboration with Save Lea Marshes, on a project to creatively highlight the environmental crimes being committed against our river. We’re very excited by this collaboration focused on the Old River Lea, and more will be shared as the project develops!
We feel inspired by our journey, and whilst in the early stages, encouraged to take our long-standing work campaigning for the River Lea (which began in 2013) in a creative and heartfelt direction, towards attaining River Rights. How exactly rights for our river will look will be the result of further research, collaboration and discussion. But just like the pilgrimage, we’d love you to be part of it! So do join us, and if you were part of the pilgrimage, send us your reflections on the journey.