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29-723: The River Lambourn is a chalk stream in the English county of Berkshire . It rises in the Berkshire Downs near its namesake village of Lambourn and is a tributary of the River Kennet , which is itself a tributary of the River Thames . The river is a 28.9-hectare (71-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Protection Area under the European Union Directive on

58-481: A hundred yards before rejoining the river. The Lambourn runs through the middle of Eastbury, and past The Plough Inn , which holds The Great Eastbury Duck Race on the river in May. In East Garston there are many houses are built on one bank with their own bridges from the front door to the road opposite. The river splits into several channels at Great Shefford , and is joined by many small streams, which join as it leaves

87-399: A rainwater drain and occasionally flows down a channel between the road and pavement. In the village it runs underground in a pipe until re-emerging alongside the road opposite The Malt Shovel and along Malt Shovel Lane. At this point it is usually little more than a damp, muddy ditch, and remains so until halfway through Lynch Wood. Here it is fed by several springs, two of which are close to

116-467: A temporary reservoir by regulating the amount of water supplied to the springs. This is why many chalk streams in the UK have stable flow regimes that vary only slightly over time. The temperature of the emerging surface water is fairly stable and rarely deviates from 10 °C (50 °F). On cold winter mornings, water vapour from the relatively warm stream condenses in the cold air above to form fog. Chalk

145-556: A thaw. It dried up again from the summer of 2010 until the spring of 2012, when increased rainfall filled the river, since when the adjacent roads in Upper Lambourn, Lambourn and Eastbury have been regularly flooded. The river leaves the wood and enters Lambourn under a bridge crossed by the Goose Green Road, here it flows more quickly as the channel narrows to four to six feet across and six to eight inches deep. It

174-685: Is a ford next to the Bockhampton Road bridge which is used by horses (and accidentally by a car in March 2009, which had to be pulled out) and the river leaves the town through Bockhampton Manor Farm . Bernard's Ford is found to the west of Eastbury , which is also suitable only for tractors and horses. Here the Lambourn forced its banks in July 2007 and flowed down the Newbury Road for over

203-447: Is almost unique for a chalk stream in southern England in that its flow regime remains near-natural in form; not being significantly modified by groundwater abstraction. Ironically, this situation developed because of a major groundwater abstraction project. In the 1960s the long term water supply situation for London was regarded as vulnerable and one avenue investigated to rectify this was to use untapped water resources naturally stored in

232-477: Is constricted by the houses built on the riverbank, which were partially flooded in July 2007 as numerous weeds clogged the river under the many small bridges (and even one garden shed) built over it. It passes by The Lamb and the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service and runs between the houses on the south side of the Newbury Road and the playing fields to the north of Bockhampton Road. There

261-485: Is situated on the old river level road from Newbury to Lambourn , and is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Lambourn and 1 mile (1.6 km) west of East Garston . The village is situated in the civil parish of Lambourn, which is within the unitary authority of West Berkshire . Eastbury has three Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) within close vicinity to the village, these are White Shute , Westfield Farm Chalk Bank and Cleeve Hill . Bernard's Ford on

290-480: Is slightly soluble in rainwater because rain is naturally slightly acidic . The products of chalk weathering are dissolved in rainwater and are transported in stream flow. Chalk streams transport little suspended material (unlike most rivers), but are considered " mineral -rich" due to the dissolved calcium and carbonate ions . The surface water of chalk streams is commonly described as "gin clear". The channel bed consists of angular flint gravel derived from

319-647: The River Lambourn is found to the west of the village, suitable only for tractors and horses, but there is also a footbridge. Here the river overflowed its banks in July 2007 and flowed down the Newbury Road for over a hundred yards before rejoining the river. The Lambourn runs through the middle of Eastbury, and past the Plough Inn, which holds the Great Eastbury Duck Race on the river in May. This Berkshire location article

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348-562: The River Thames , River Lea and River Colne ): Chalk streams of the Yorkshire Wolds : Chalk streams of Lincolnshire : There are several chalk streams in the Lincolnshire Wolds including Chalk streams of Kent: Chalk streams of Norfolk: Chalk streams of Suffolk: Eastbury, Berkshire Eastbury is a village in the valley of the River Lambourn in the English county of Berkshire . The village

377-481: The 210 rivers classified as chalk streams globally, 160 are in England. A list of chalk streams in England gives a total of 224. Chalk is a highly porous and permeable rock, and rain falling onto chalk topography percolates directly into the ground, where the chalk layer acts as an aquifer . The groundwater flows through the chalk bedrock, re-emerging lower down the slope in springs . The chalk acts as

406-464: The Conservation of Wild Birds . The upper reaches of the river are seasonal, with a perennial source derived from a number of springs located upstream of the village of Great Shefford . At times when the water table in the chalk aquifer feeding the river is high (usually between November and March) the source of the river migrates upstream. Along the bourn section of the river are located

435-560: The Goose Green road, forming a short stream that runs ten feet downhill into the river. These springs quickly fill the channel and the river swells ten to twenty feet wide and over three feet deep, submerging several fallen trees. Although bourne until Great Shefford the river was not dry below Lynch Wood in 2007–08. However, it dried up in June–July 2009 and the riverbed remained dry until January 2010 due to 4-5 inches of snow melting in

464-493: The Lambourn catchment and also in other nearby river catchments. The project, named the Thames Groundwater Scheme, was completed in 1976 to coincide with the most serious drought in 50 years, but on final testing of the scheme it was found that the effective increase in river flow downstream was minimal, and essentially the project was a failure. Almost all of the infrastructure for the project (now known as

493-548: The River Lambourn was selected as a pilot study to assess the feasibility of the project, and the Lambourn Valley Pilot Scheme was undertaken between 1967 and 1970. The final conclusion from the pilot study was that the overall scheme appeared feasible and a significant number of large abstraction boreholes and observation boreholes, together with pipelines and control equipment, were installed in

522-708: The Royalist Army of King Charles I of England took up a defensive position in the triangle where the River Lambourn meets the River Kennet , with fortifications at Shaw House and Speen . Here it was attacked by the Parliamentarian Armies in the Second battle of Newbury on 27 October 1644. Chalk stream The beds of the rivers are generally composed of clean, compacted gravel and flints , which are good spawning areas for Salmonidae fish species. Since they are fed primarily by aquifers ,

551-399: The UK has caused the chalk streams to dry up. This has caused ecological damage and stagnant sewage that flows through the rivers and increasing phosphate levels. Although chalk streams are generally watercourses originating from chalk hills, including winterbournes , streams, and rivers, the term chalk stream is used even for larger rivers, which would normally be considered too large for

580-634: The West Berkshire Groundwater Scheme) is still in place and maintained, albeit on a rather shoestring budget. But the lasting legacy of the scheme is that the catchment has been preserved as a near-natural groundwater system, almost totally unaffected by groundwater abstractions. This factor made it an ideal candidate for selection as one of the flagship research sites for the NERC LOCAR research project investigating permeable (i.e. groundwater dominated) catchments. In 1644

609-514: The best conditions for fly fishing , and most specifically, dry fly fishing . The chalk streams hold a good number of wild salmonid fish species such as the brown trout ( Salmo trutta ), and grayling ( Thymallus thymallus ). In addition to these there are also considerable numbers of stocked brown trout and stocked rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ). The rich invertebrate life and characteristic transparent shallow water make chalk rivers and streams particularly suited to fly fishing. Many of

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638-608: The chalk aquifer of low population density areas of south east England. One such area was the West Berkshire Downs, including the catchment of the River Lambourn. The plan was to abstract groundwater from the chalk aquifer during times of drought and then use the existing river system as a natural conduit to transport the water to London, via the River Kennet and the River Thames. An area in the catchment of

667-615: The chalk stream springs are also used as sites for watercress production, due to the constant temperature and clean, alkaline , mineral-rich spring water. The Mid Hants Watercress Railway in Hampshire is so named on account of its use for transporting watercress to London from local chalk streams. A number of the chalk aquifers and associated groundwater sources related to chalk streams and rivers are used for water abstraction by local and national water utility companies. The over-abstracting of chalk streams by private water companies in

696-436: The flow rate, mineral content and temperature range of chalk streams exhibit less seasonal variation than other rivers. They are mildly alkaline and contain high levels of nitrate , phosphate , potassium and silicate . In addition to algae and diatoms , the streams provide a suitable habitat for macrophytes (including water crowfoot ) and oxygen levels are generally supportive of coarse fish populations. Of

725-470: The natural flint deposits found embedded within the chalk geology that contains relatively low amounts of clay and silt deposits. The unique characteristics of chalk stream ecology are due to stable temperature and flow regimes combined with highly transparent water and lack of sand grade sediment particles. The chalk streams have been intensively managed for many generations. In the 20th and 21st centuries, much of that management has been aimed at producing

754-757: The term stream . The Somme in northern France is a chalk stream on a larger scale. Winterbournes are known by different names depending on region: Chalk streams of the Southern England Chalk Formation in Berkshire , Hampshire , Wiltshire , Dorset and the Isle of Wight : Chalk streams of the Southern England Chalk Formation in the Chiltern Hills , Hertfordshire and Surrey (tributaries of

783-591: The village of Bagnor. The Lambourn Valley Way from the Uffington White Horse to Newbury generally follows the River Lambourn from Lambourn to Donnington Castle , in many places using the embankments of the old Lambourn Valley Railway . The highest source of the Lambourn is on the Maddle Road in the village of Upper Lambourn , near the Wiltshire and Oxfordshire borders. It emerges from

812-572: The village under the A338 Swan Bridge and behind The Swan . From Lambourn to Newbury the river remains roughly parallel to the Newbury Road (which becomes the Lambourn Road) which crosses it many times. In Newbury it runs between Donnington and Speen and south of Shaw House until it joins the River Kennet to the south of The Nature Discovery Centre . The River Kennet joins the River Thames at Reading . The River Lambourn

841-478: The villages of Eastbury and East Garston , while along the perennial section of the river are the villages of Great Shefford , Welford , Boxford , Bagnor , Donnington and Shaw . Below Shaw is the confluence of the River Lambourn with the River Kennet, located between Newbury and Thatcham . The River Lambourn itself has a single perennial tributary, the Winterbourne Stream, which joins it at

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