大象传媒

Helen Mark travels along the Teme Valley. The River Teme rises in Powys in Wales and meets the sea in the Bristol Channel. Along its length it travels around the edges of Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire and is one of the most inaccessible of rivers because it's very fast flowing.


Helen meets Peter Walker, whose family have farmed around the river for five generations. At the top of Ankerdine Hill they look over the lush landscape, which was formed during the ice age. The river used to go north from Knightwick but, at the end of the ice age, a glacier came down the Wye Valley and spread out across the lowland areas of Herefordshire. It blocked the river and a lake was created. The lake spilled over and changed the routing of the river, sending it eastwards. Peter tells Helen that they're standing on a geological fault, noted for its earthquakes. The valley is prone to flooding, the last major was one was in 1886 and Peter reckons there's another due any time.

Helen meets Brian Draper, who'se worked on the river for 40 years, in the hamlet of Knightwick. They walk past a potato field, and Brian says the area was best known for hops which flourished in the rich, 16 foot-deep topsoil. These days, German lager companies are buying up the hopyards because their own have been decimated by disease. The river is rich in wildlife: there are otters, grey wagtails, kingfishers, dippers, and the goosander. a duck which eats fish.

The river runs through Ludlow, where Helen meets David Lloyd on the breadwalk, so called because it was built in 1851 by the unemployed who were paid in bread to stop them spending their wages in the local pubs. David explains that the river has always been known for its weirs (it has huge drops on its journey to the sea) and there are five weirs along this section of the river alone. From medieval times the power of the water has been harnessed to provide power for mills which produced everything from flour to cloth to iron. In fact, the name Ludlow means "the place by the loud waters".