The ever-changing Sowe Valley: from a trickle to a torrent

After a period of torrential rain, it's always a thrill to go and look at the flooded Sowe. The transformation is amazing, from a small river not much wider in places than a brook, to a wide sheet of water alive with birds. Pictures can't really do it justice: it's as much about the sound of the water rushing and gurgling under bridges, the scream of the gulls, the plaintive pipe of the moorhen, the aquaplaning of a skein of geese as they land. There's a dank, marshy smell in the air, and the wind blowing across the temporary lake feels laden with moisture.

The golf course, Ernesford Grange

Willows with their feet wet

Taken from the Brookstray, Ernesford Grange



The 'oxbow' by the Brookstray path, completely flooded

It's interesting to be able to observe such widespread flooding from a relatively safe vantage point, though standing on the bridges makes me realise how treacherous the River Sowe can be when in full spate. So far, householders in Ernesford Grange and Willenhall have not been directly threatened by the rising of the water, but on reflection, it has to flow somewhere. The Sowe runs into the Avon, which has its confluence with the Severn at Tewkesbury: the volume of the water must be phenomenal by this time.

We are fortunate to be living in a green area, a designated flood plain which can never be built on. We can observe a landscape which is never the same two days running, and be n touch with the power of nature only a few yards away from our doorstep.