okay the year is 1540. a man named John Leland wrote a lot of stuff down 16th
century this wasn't uncommon but this one piece of information he
wrote down still sticks with us today 500 or so years on this piece of information
oh it's still in print form today and it's taken as absolute gospel now that's not unusual for
the musings and the theories of an antiquarian to stick around even today especially one that
was trying to get the ear of the king at the time and he really did want to get the ear of the king
but what if I said to you that what he wrote down was wrong not just a theory of mine but
by definition what he wrote was absolutely wrong so let's go back a step or two now a little while
ago we made a video about the source of the River Thames I think we even mentioned John Leland ever
since 1542 John Lelend decreed that actually Thames head was the source of the Thames where
we were earlier we searched about for the source of the Thames and we found the original Monument
I think then we went a bit further south and we even found another one and that was great all
the maps seem to agree source of the River Thames and this hasn't been disputed since John Leland
declared that right there in that position was a source of the Thames we've taken as gospel ever
since but it was wrong so in that video we went all the way back to Seven Springs lo and behold
up on the wall there and over there there's a couple of pacques in Latin declaring that this is
the true source of the Thames I'll show you one of those plaques i'll just jump across the Thames
right there it is a true source of the Thames now like John Leland we thought well we're being quite
smart this is uh the top of the river churn a tributary to the Thames and it goes further
back than the actual source of the River Thames therefore by rights making this the source of the
River Thames so that was it Case Closed time to pack up back this antiquarian called John Leland
we'd been a little bit lazy in some respects and he hadn't really researched properly but we had and
we'd found the source of the River Thames at least that was until Hedley came along
and he said so by your definition then this actually isn't the source of the Thames
like our friend John Leland 500 years previous well it turned out that we too were wrong my
name is Paul and I'm Rebecca, hold on, I'm Rebecca and this is a story of how we too were wrong on
the original source of the Thames now there are a lot of different definitions but they all pretty
much mean the same thing measure the distance of the River from its Estuary along the course
of the river to its furthest tributary and that indeed is the source of a river [Music]
what Hadley why did we get it why do we get it wrong if you look at ordinance survey map you'll
see that the tributary that comes from Seven Springs a aka the source of the churn actually
meets Another River at the medieval village of coberley on that River actually comes from
down a valley and then emerges just by the road uh that we're going to uh at a place called National
Star College and you can see it it's a proper spring it's a pipe coming out the ground with
water coming out and because it's further Upstream than Seven Springs then if you're going to use the
definition to make Seven Springs The Source rather than the one at Thames head then unfortunately
that needs to be extended to this place right we better go and take a look at that then we yes
so let's have another look at that map and well on the face of it I can't disagree with Headley
it looks a lot longer so we drove up there and we had a look now it's on a main road so we couldn't
get much talking done there but we did get quite a few shots including headley's drone shots and
if we Zoomed In from quite a distance away well you can see that this section here looks like it
comes out of an underground section maybe a culvert or maybe just naturally Underground
now potentially this goes back further under the golf course but we can't really
include that because to be a river well you need to flow on top of the ground
so is that it there or is there yet another twist in this story [Music]
you're probably about halfway through the video yeah I was wondering that
myself but hey ho I guess we'll head back to the car yeah okay can I borrow this a minute
and I'll meet you back at the car yeah sure yeah yeah okay thank you right okay
um the problem is the video is kind of going quite well and I didn't have the heart to tell
them that I've actually received a message saying that there is another tributary that's
a bit longer than the other two and uh yeah so we should really check that out I guess
You what! [Music]
right so Headley this is part three you've roped us into how we ended up here but we're now at
the top of a Cally Hill Plantation Lovely isn't it yeah so you think there is something on the
map here that we should be looking at there are some Springs that are marked on the OS map here
that run down into a valley down that way and then join up with the churn uh coberley and this
is the spot x marks the spot if this is a stream down here Yep this is slightly longer so this is
longer than the new Star College the national Star College yes National star yes yes it's
it's slightly longer so by a few hundred meters right if we find water we have found the source of
the Thames by definition and you're not going to surprise us with a fourth right I haven't got the
time or the energy but I have I have just been checking the OS maps and I can't see anything
that would be longer right okay let's find the third and final potential source of the Thames
while hedley gets the drone out I'm gonna have a look at the exact spot on the map it says
spring which is kind of just up this road here 200 meters away so see you guys in a moment [Music]
I went a bit too far up this road
back 20 or 30 meters I think somewhere in that hedge
have a look at that under my feet quite a bit of water not frozen must be being pushed up
from somewhere and therefore a spring now if this could continually flow in that direction
this is the source of the Thames so as Hedley flies right above me now and I just
said the sauce the Thames could be there because it's very very wet where there's
a drain here carrying a flow of water that's underground so does that mean that there's a
break here and it doesn't count probably so let's head on down the valley and have a look [Music]
right so we've just found a curious what looks like some kind of cattle um watering hole and
it's probably the Culvert that comes out of it is probably the Culvert that we saw up at the top by
the first spring but sadly there's no flowing water so we really can't say that as a sauce
as such because you'd expect to see some kind of flow down there I would imagine at some points
water does flow down there may be in a heavy storm or something so we're going to head down
a tiny bit further and see if we can pick up this flow and we've only got a certain amount
of meters to go before this bit becomes shorter than the national Star College tributary [Music]
so what we're looking at now is a site of two more springs on the map a bit further down the
hill and we can see a lot of water around here a lot of standing water so again that does add up
the map is right but there's no flowing water between that spring and this spring today at
least and yeah it's a frosty day but we've also had a lot of water today so I wonder if that's
just sporadic and uh when there is a storm or something the water does flow but that's it so
I guess we can't really count that can we no but then if you go by that you can't really
count thames head either good point and this is going to be very close I mean we've got two 300
meters we've walked down yeah and that's about the difference between this yeah and the one at
the National star if we can't if we don't count that National star college is right if we do count
that this is the true source of the Thames, it's going to be confirmed after we get home isn't it [Music]
oh the water's gone there's a man-made Pond there so they obviously expect water there it's even
got an outflow pipe coming out of it so where's the water gone water should be here there's a
lot of water flowing up there but it's gone um now I get down here and show you what we mean
there's an obvious flow here the grass is flattened where there has been water
where is the water ah [Music]
well we've lost the river completely I say River we've lost a brook or whatever you want to call
it completely so if that is the source of the Thames where does the water go probably goes underground
sad to say so I'm afraid Headley yeah I don't know if we can count this and it's just a bit of a
shame because up that side you've got a hill Fort yeah there you've got some very defined earth
works and you'd think those between the two you'd probably have a flowing source of water but maybe
over the years agriculture is piped it underneath the valley somehow and this is now a Gate Drive I
wonder I wonder if it is there is it is cold voted man-made Culvert underneath [Music] so basically
the OS map is right there are Springs up there it is Flowing but it probably is coverted all
the way down there which means we're back to National star college right Headley yep we are
seems to be the furthest from the uh from the Estuary right so if that is the case where we
still have a point in making this video because it still does prove that actually it's not where
we were at Seven Springs it's actually near National star college where it first appears
unbroken and is a greater distance therefore that is the source yeah okay case closed case
closed until next time thanks for watching people I've been Paul I'm Rebecca and I've been Rebecca
[Music]
A Wild Hedley Appears in his natural habitat