Wilbraham Warbler May 2026

Just over 30 people joined us for our informative 2026 Annual Walk around Fulbourn Nature Reserve visiting several key locations related to the original Great Wilbraham River. The old river bed ran along the parish boundary with Great Wilbraham but was abandoned and diverted into the Fulbourn “New Cut” around 1955. This came about because the river banks by Herrings House were not properly maintained and the water levels had reduced owing to the effects of Fleam Dyke Pumping Station abstracting water from the ground for Cambridge. This station opened in 1921 and is 900metres from the springs that fed the river. Nowadays when the springs run they are diverted into a channel that passes around the Nature Reserve then cuts across it and eventually the water passes under the railway to Fulbourn New Cut. An augmentation scheme designed to mitigate the effects of the Fleam Dyke Station was introduced in 1992 and in Fulbourn was used to directly augment the Nature Reserve. We visited the pipe outlet on our walk and it has been operating for most of the last year. Sadly this year low rainfall means that the groundwater levels have not reached high enough to start the springs at Fulbourn – or at the Temple in Great Wilbraham. So our upstream river sections have been entirely dependent on water pumped through pipes under the A11 from a borehole at Dungate Farm. It is very likely that the section from Hawk Mill Farm to Quy Mill Hotel will again dry up completely this summer. Remember that back in the 1930s people could row down the Great Wilbraham River and swim in it! On a more positive note our walk ended at Fulbourn Manor where the Townleys’ kindly hosted enjoyable refreshments.

The WRPS have been talking to the Environment Agency for over a decade regarding improving the augmentation scheme and the long term proposals to reduce local water abstraction. This remains an uphill struggle and not helped by the late in the day proposal to place an East-West Rail “Train Care Centre” in Fulbourn close to the Industrial site by the railway crossing. The WRPS is strongly against this proposal which is inappropriate for many reasons but not least bizarre in a water stressed area with endangered chalk streams. The site will require significant water and waste disposal for which the details are lacking. There are noise, light and visual pollution issues as well construction and operational traffic that would impact both Wilbrahams as well as Fulbourn and the likelihood the Centre would be expanded in the near future to service not just EWR trains. As we learn more we hope that the local Parish Councils will strongly object to this Centre in the currently proposed location.

The WRPS is also submitting a response to the Significant Water Management Issues consultation for the next revision of the “River Basin Management Plans”. This is fairly technical but important as these plans are legally binding on the Environment Agency and others regarding how our river is managed from 2027-2032. We are asking for a proper evaluation and improvement of the augmentation scheme as well as an explanation of how our river is being assessed under the Water Framework Directive.

On a practical front we hold regular seasonal walks around Wilbraham Fen to monitor the river and wildlife – details are posted on our website and members informed by email. We have also installed cameras regularly capturing the river state at several locations where the Environment Agency have failed to install or reactivate their existing monitoring. These are visible on our website on the “river” tab and our water quality report from the 1^st March 2026 sampling is in “Info/documents”.

We are always happy to welcome new members – particularly those prepared to join the committee and help us expand our activities for example into schools and river monitoring. We would love to hear from anyone with environmental DNA expertise for example. This would allow us to document which species inhabit or use our rivers. Our contact details are below -

www.thewrps.org

wilbrahamriver@gmail.com