right now I am holding a document which I freely downloaded from the internet which
states we cannot move or navigate along this river that was news to me until I read that document
so I guess we better leave but hold on if we're leaving then we've got to move or navigate along
the river which we're not allowed to do oh God does that mean we're stuck here forever anyway
um this video is sponsored by the lovely people at Hello Fresh, more on that in a moment [Music]
take a look at this map it's quite staggering this is a south of England and these are the
main rivers everything you see in purple is not accessible to you or I to stand in to swim to
paddle to canoe or boat or anything really in fact the only accessible ones seems to be the
canals and that makes me a bit sad because when I spent my youth growing up in places just like this
in fact I probably learned to swim in rivers like this something changed though something's crept
up on us something stinks that will be the Water Company's dumping raw sewage in the rivers okay so
what's changed why are we talking about Vanishing rivers and what's the bigger issue here okay so
the UK has 42,000 miles of rivers now we only have access or Undisputed access to 1400 miles of those
Rivers so you and I only have access to around four percent now this is sounding a bit like
some of the land access videos we've already done it certainly is now the government have suggested
over the last decade or so that lobbying groups and canoeists and paddle balls and all those
sort of people should simply negotiate access with landowners now to find out why that doesn't really
work we need to get back in the water before we do we must say thank you to our sponsor this
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you can use the QR code that's um here that's just been creeping up on us thank you [Music]
so the first important thing is nobody owns the actual water not as one human being as such
however the land underneath it was a different story so if you've got a landowner one side of
the river and the other side of the river or the boundary for their land gets to the
halfway point down the middle of the river so it's potentially owned by two different
people but what if negotiations don't work that's a great point because in the last
10 years only 50 miles per year has actually been negotiated so if you want access to 44
000 miles of the UK's Rivers that's going to take you 300 years so there's a lot of campaign groups
Lobby groups people like the the canoeists they're paddle boarders and a lot of other social groups
that see the benefit of access to these Rivers they see the the physical benefit the mental
well-being benefit and they try to use points from ancient laws okay I think covert really did drill
that home as well so what ancient laws as far back as Roman times any permanently flowing non-tidal
river was deemed public property the Magna Carta across 33 established free passage along England's
Rivers a 1472 act well that set the way for General rights to navigations so that ships
and boats might have them their large and free passage so I'm guessing this is where the document
comes in indeed it does it's quite a fascinating document because it's made by a law firm on behalf
of their members who are landowners who own the rivers and it tells them all about their riparian
rights their rights about the rivers so why is the document bad then what's what this sounds
like is a good idea well basically it's aimed at those land owners and it's made out that you and
I the people visiting a river are going to do everything to damage and cause Untold Mischief
along the banks of those Rivers many members are worried about damage in the context of the
commentary from canoeing groups and individuals repeated trespass by individuals and non-motorized
craft paddling along the river are key concerns the whole notion in my opinion is this document
makes it sound like if you're a landowner you're going to have problems and here's how to fix those
problems in a legal frame it creates them and an us and not once is it really consider the fact
that you and I might want to go out and enjoy areas like this and paddle in the river and
and do sort of recreational things that are good for our physical well-being our mental well-being
in fact wait I tell a lie it does page 13 of this document States right at the bottom here
we recognize that people will want to get out and enjoy the countryside but so that's just
wrong really isn't it this whole document is just wrong it's very divisive I believe [Music]
so it turns out July is love your River month so we thought it would be a good idea to meet
up with our mate Hedley who knows this landscape very well and walk along the test way now the
people that write to Rome are encouraging people to discover your local rivers and
all the fascinating things about it the locations and the wildlife and all that
sort of shizzle so where are we starting this walk Headley so this is Gallows down
um behind us is coombez and then behind that is warbury Hill which is the I've got to get
this right the highest point in the Southeast and South Central England it's lovely okay so
the test way is 44 miles long we're not going to walk all of that for obvious reasons but we're
just gonna try and pick up a few sites and do exactly what Rebecca said we're just going to
see the river test and uh try and enjoy a little bit of it and talk about some more of these issues
[Music]
this could be one of the highest bits of chalk
I'm wondering if it's in the world really um I need to look it up later but I'm I think that
certainly in the south of England this is the highest bit of chalk and I would probably say
there for England and I I'm not sure whether that makes it the whole of Europe there'll be a thing
across the bottom of the screen in a minute saying nope it was not or yes he's right he's happy right
or wrong yes right so we're gonna go and find the bit of river that the tests weigh uh first meets
the test hold the camera Rebecca because I'm going to read out something for our viewers okay visit
Hampshire website people says the test weighs a 44 mile long distance walking route they'll
be able to take from the dramatic start high on the truck Downs of ink pen that's it to follow
much of the course of the river test excellent let's go and do what that says okay foreign
[Music]
this is whirl this is the first time the test way actually connects with the river
test Okay so we've walked we haven't walked at all 26 miles to get to this point from
coomb jibit where we started the journey 26 miles along the test way so we're well over
halfway because it's 44 miles in total presumably now we can carry on along the
test way and sort of do what Vector rooms just explore the banks of the river test
oh sorry it's a bit of a way yet right visit Hampshire clearly states that we should be
enjoying the river test it's taking us 26 miles to get to the river test we've only
got another 18 miles to go down to romsey and you're saying we still can't enjoy the
banks of the banks of the river test this is a bit silly isn't it not yet [Music]
so I just want to check out the other side of this bridge where the test way connects with the river
test for the first time and yes right it's we now leave the bank to the river texting
me head almost perpendicular out towards the east we can't walk along the test there it
looks like it is it for a good few miles the map seems to show the same as well [Music] thank you
[Music]
right so I did go down in the bridge in the pathway does just head off perpendicular to the
river test so more Bank problems we can't get to yeah there is just one more thing though [Music]
oh so we headed a little bit further further down the test valley and we know we've still
not come to the river test in terms of a joining it and walking its banks as the visit Hampshire
website says we can do and the right to Rome that's how we should do which is great but you
said there's another problem Eddie what's the other problem yeah well it's been fairly well
publicized recently about uh dumping of sewage raw sewage in rivers this is a chalk stream considered
to be one of the rarest and most precious rivers in England yet for more than six months last year
untreated sewage was discharged into this River from the local treatment works um in fact I think
it was May last year 2022 BBC reporting there's 375 000 instances of it throughout England that's
staggering isn't it absolutely staggering and a couple of days ago it was reported here at
Fullerton as well that's why we've come here to Fullerton then it is shocking isn't it really
is an incredibly sad story now wherever you are in England beach has been hit hard especially
with many beachgoers being advised simply to avoid swimming a couple of scream grabs show
the extent of the problem from the last couple of days before this edit so what exactly can
we do what can you do right so what can we do as individuals it's really difficult we're not big
corporations we're just three voices in this instance so how can we help Rebecca any ideas
well you can join right to Rome yep because a lot of their um campaigns are about rivers themselves
so that will certainly help I think there's a hashtag they're using which is love your River
um don't forget next month July yep um right to your local MP right to look MP good thing yeah
tell us about your local River and what you're doing and how you can sort of get involved
tell us about your area um right from us free thank you very much for watching me and Hedley
have a podcast if you haven't already listened to that podcast go listen we'll put the link in the
description below also a final note a big thanks to our sponsor in this video hello fresh for
giving us the opportunity to show off their product see you next time [Music]
[Music]