We are thrilled to announce that the Exning New River Volunteers were the winners of the Environmental/Heritage award at the Newmarket Community Awards event which was held at The Jockey Club Rooms this week.
The award was accepted by Jenny Ricketts who gave a short speech thanking all the volunteers and briefly explained some of the technical and historical information behind what we have been doing to improve the New River.
Acceptance speech by Jenny Ricketts
On behalf of the Exning New River volunteers I would like to thank the Newmarket Community Foundation for this award. We are honoured and very surprised to have been nominated, thank you Alison.
The New River is a chalk stream that emerges on Jockey Club land at the Seven Springs to the south of Exning. It winds its way through the village, then onto Landwade and Wicken Fen.
Legend has it that Queen Boudicca had a settlement for her Iceni tribe at Exning, in the first century and then the Anglo-Saxon King Anna settled here in the 6th century, both requiring a reliable source of fresh clean water for their armies. St Wendreda, a daughter of Anna and an Anglo-Saxon nun and healer is believed to have used the water to treat ailments.
The water is rich in minerals and remains at a fairly constant temperature year-round which lets diverse aquatic plants grow and supports many invertebrate and fish species. The water from the New River is used by the National Trust at Wicken Fen to wet Sedge Fen, one of the 0.1% of remaining fen land in the region that has never been drained
We have been continually astounded at the amazing number of village volunteers who have shown interest and turned out to help in all weathers with the restoration work. They have arrived at the allotted time with waders, mallets, wheelbarrows, shovels, secateurs, shears – quite a sight! One volunteer has helped with surveying the river, producing plans and calculating amounts of materials required for the restoration – all far beyond my capabilities!
Getting to this point has been a steep learning curve but we have been fortunate to receive a number of grants and ‘pick the brains’ of local experts on chalk streams, mainly Rob Mungovan of The Wild Trout Trust and Steve Boreham of Reach.
Now, every day, local people can be seen stopping at the Duck Pond & Brookside where they are greeted by clear flowing water, with ducks, moorhens, dragon flies, sticklebacks, and often a little egret, a heron and a very speedy kingfisher. Nature too is rapidly taking over with phenomenal growth of the aquatic plants we planted and which will give us a flowering display all summer.
Thank you. This project has brought the community together and many new friendships have formed. Thank you to everyone for your unstinting interest and support.
