Damming the Digger’s Ditch

We approached Wiltshire Wildlife for an expert opinion on the ditch that is draining our boggy patch in Lambrok Meadow. Their Water Team has concluded: we think the most likely cause is that it is part of an historic drainage channel that has just opened up naturally.

FoSCP agrees that it may well be an old drainage channel, but we feel it is one that has been cleared by a new boot heel. We decided to block it again and put up a notice asking for park users’ cooperation.

There are water voles nearby; we found many holes, and reeds in the stream that had been nibbled off at 45% just the way water voles do. There are small signs that they might graze in the boggy patch but, as yet, it is early in the year for much activity far from their holes. There is no indication that they have been involved in the construction of the ditch.

Let’s hope that our dam holds this time.

Photographs by Suzanne Humphries

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