Northern Wey Trust Newsletter Autumn 2012 Membership Newsletter No. 39 Editorial This has been a very busy spring behind-the-scenes at the Northern Wey Trust and much of this relates to the Catchment Project for which a bid for funds is being organised by Surrey Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency. This was outlined by Mike Waite in the last issue of the NWT Newsletter (No. 38, page 2). Firstly June Chatfield, Gill Glover and Alec Baker from NWT together with Sharon Wheeler from Molson Coors and Debbie Cousins and Adrian Bicknell from the Environment Agency, with many others from other parts of the Wey catchment, attended a workshop on the project at Farnham. Just prior to this the NWT had submitted a project on the river through Alton that aims to promote natural environmental services performed by the river and also to help with diffuse pollution and connecting up of habitats. At this meeting there was some very useful networking with other groups particularly Dr Martin Angel of the Bourne Conservation Group (a tributary of the northern Wey at Farnham), Stephen Frye of the Wey Valley Fisheries Consultative Association (one of our corporate members) and Andy Thomas of the Wild Trout Trust that is based at Waterlooville in . The next move was a Steering Group meeting at Guildford led by Surrey Wildlife Trust and the Environment Agency on 13 July and this returning. Our very supportive colleague Debbie Cousins at the was to decide which projects should go forward in the first bid Environment Agency has been off sick but is now returning to the and also the bid window to aim for. Our Alton project was in! Mike Conservation office although not yet out on field work. Our good Waite came to Alton on 29 June to see the river and meet partners wishes to her for a full recovery. involved and there will be some gathering of more data for the Planning applications potentially affecting the river continue to next Steering Group but we have just heard that the next bidding be monitored and responded to, often at short notice. The Alton window will be March 2013, not October this year. Society has useful planning links on their website On Easter Monday we took a table at the Mill Cottage Farm www.altonsociety.org Experience open day (see report later in the newsletter). Our AGM ...continues page 2. was held, courtesy of Molson Coors (Corporate member) again in the brewery on 8 June when Sarah Jane Chimbwandira gave This newsletter has been compiled by an excellent talk on the River Wey Catchment Project and two Dr June Chatfield. Any news items or other features of our partners from the Amery Hill Residents’ Association were there. Following this and refreshment the business meeting of the of interest should be sent to AGM took place when reports were read, committee members June Chatfield, Anglefield, 44 Ashdell Road, Alton, appointed and a general discussion took place, one of the useful Hampshire GU34 2TA or to the Secretary by features of an AGM. Sharon Wheeler from Coors who looks after e-mail: [email protected] the environmental side of their work was there, together with Ruth , whose maternity leave was being covered. Sharon has now left Coors and we are most grateful to her for her enthusiastic Subscriptions support of the NWT making meeting facilities available, working Adults: £5 with her colleague Debbie Read from Head Office at Burton-on- Family: £10 Trent in developing firstly a Trust brochure leaflet and later the Corporate: £25 website. For artwork and design of the leaflet they brought in Treasurer/Membership Secretary: Jacqueline Martin, Sarah Richards who featured in the last NWT Newsletter (page 8). The photograph of the launch of the leaflet on the same page 15 Finches Green, Alton, Hants, GU34 2JU. Cheques also shows Sharon Wheeler in the right of the front row. Sadly payable to: The Northern Wey Trust . there have been some staff changes and Ruth will not now be Website – www.northernweytrust.org.uk Page 1 The Wey has also received a number of lower level pollution incidents this year necessitating visits and investigation by the Environment Agency and cumulative effects on our river. The Chairman was involved in a site meeting when water of a dubious quality was issuing from a presumed storm water overflow when there had been no rain. The Environment Agency brought in tanks pumping out the waste and containing the pollution while investigative work was underway following the pipeline to its source. There is so much underground pipework that is unknown and/or unrecorded.

After a long dry winter with low flows and dry river bed in the upper reaches of the northern Wey the late spring and summer has been wet and brought much-needed water and life to the river and hopefully the groundwater supplies that take longer to replenish. The dry state of the river has put upstream Wardens rather out-of-business but they now have animals to sample and record once more. Also in the pipeline is a wardening meeting on site and in the New Year a joint walk along the northern Wey downstream in the Farnham area with our sister organisation the River Wey Trust (southern Wey) and the Bourne Conservation Society (a tributary).

June Chatfield

Mill Cottage Farm Experience Open Day

The annual open day took place on Easter Monday 9 April 2012 at Andrew’s Endowed School in and although previous open days had enjoyed good weather, in 2012 it was rain, rain, rain. However a range of stall holders set up in the school hall or under tented cover with the displays, animals, crafts, demonstrations, family games, refreshments, band and Morris dancing. The Chairman went along to display animals and plants from the northern Wey in its own water in addition to the rain. It was commendable how many local people turned up and braved the elements to support the event, determined to enjoy what they could and took a real interest in the river animals in spite of the Purple Toothwort at conditions. Mill Mill Cottage Farm Experience operates at the end of Upper Neatham Mill Lane, Holybourne where the northern Wey forms Some years ago, in the early days of the Northern Wey Trust, one boundary of their land and The Bourne from the church Dr Trevor Weston asked me to go along to Neatham Mill in bounds to the east. Sarah and Richard Main keep a range of farm Holybourne to check up on a purple flower that had appeared animals that can be seen from the riverside footpath that crosses under willows in the grounds. This turned out to be Purple one of their fields. The sheep, goats and pigs are taken out to Toothwort (Lathraea clandestina) a non-native probably school visits and Sarah is a Winchester-trained teacher who did introduced with planted willows or poplars (the two trees are very animal behaviour as part of her degree. Information is given on a closely related) and it is a parasite arising from the rootstock of notice board where the public riverside footpath crosses their field. willows. Like the common native Toothwort of hazel (L. squamaria) that is also found in at the edges of woods, it NWT River Warden for this stretch is Kevin Stevens, our Alton has scales rather than green leaves, but unlike it the flowers are Town Council representative and he nobly turned up to help out purple and almost stemless. First seen in Hampshire in 1958 near on the open day, giving June a chance to escape to the school Southampton, The Flora of Hampshire (Brewis, Rose and Bowman hall for a warm up, dry out and a hot dog for lunch before it was 1996) gave few records for the north of the county. Attention to back to the river shrimps and a dripping awning. Another bonus this was drawn again when Trevor and Janet Weston kindly hosted of the day was sharing the awning with Richard Osmond of Hi- a field meeting of the southern branch of the British Bryological Tech Wild-trek. He has a vehicle equipped as a mobile laboratory Society in January to record the mosses and liverworts of the mill with digital projector showing freshwater animals under the grounds in January 2012. We were intrigued to see white shoots microscope. We will be looking for volunteers to help us take part of the toothwort emerging. I duly made a return visit on 29 March on Easter Monday next year when hopefully the sun will shine on when the flowers were out and just as Janet had reported, it was the event as it has before. now much more extensive than it was 15 years ago. It will be interesting to have other records of this plant. It may be moved June Chatfield around by tree plantings.

June Chatfield

Purple Toothwort, a parasite on willows at Neatham Mill, Holybourne. Phot: June Chatfield

Page 2 Guide to British Freshwater Macroinvertebrates for Biotic Assessment. FBA Scientific Publication No.67. compiled by Simon The River Wey Trust Pawley with contributions from Michael Dobson and Melanie Fletcher. Freshwater Biological Association 2011. 80pp softback. Newsletter, May 2012 £25.00 ISBN 978-0-900386-79-4. The latest Newsletter of our sister organisation, The River Wey This had a short review in the British Journal of Entomology and Trust, centred on the southern branch of the Wey has arrived Natural History 25:, page 117 (2012). I have not yet had a chance and is with the Secretary. There is an article based on the talk to see it, but it may be of interest to those surveying rivers. The at their last AGM on the site of the Fernhurst Furnace, near Freshwater Biological Association have long produced useful and Haslemere where iron working was powered by heat from practical handbooks on techniques in freshwater biology as well locally made charcoal. It has ceased working by 1776. There as identification. are plans to uncover the furnace and the general public are encouraged to visit on the Heritage Open Weekend of 8th and 9th September 2012. Wardening report From the Riverbed gives news of the RWT, and like us they are in need of some new and younger blood. There was also mention of the River Wey Trust’s records being available at the Heritage Centre. Not all of the mills on the Wey (both Bullheads and Limpets south and north branches) were for corn-milling. Fulling mills using water to power hammers were used for treating cloth and are back this went on from the 13th century. Fuller’s Vale near Headley derives its name from the source of clay (known as Fuller’s My report in the last NWT Newsletter (No. 38) on the recovery Earth) dug for use in the fulling process. of life in the northern Wey in Alton following a severe pollution incident at New Year 2011 showed that many of the stream The River Wey Trust, c/o Mallards, Rectory Lane, invertebrates were present and breeding, especially the shrimps. , Liphook, Hants GU30 7QZ Tel: 01428 722162 However there was then no sign of Bullhead (or Miller’s Thumb) (mornings). Their subscription - £5 – is the same as ours. fish, no River Limpets and very few stony cases of caddis fly on the stones where they were once plentiful. This situation persisted through 2011 and the early part of 2012. The first sign of hope was a single small fry of Bullhead (it has a spotted body) during Bookshelf my wardening sampling at the Newman Lane steps in May, followed by another in the marginal weed in June although I did not catch any in the July sample. Somewhere a pair of adult Bullheads must have either survived in a hidden corner or swam Mills and Millers of Hampshire Vol.1 Central including the in, mated and laid eggs. rivers Itchen, Hamble and Meon. Edited by Dr Ashok Vaidya, River Limpets Hampshire Mills Group, 2011. ISBN 978-0-9569034 0 2. During June, following the heavy £12.99 plus £2.00 postage, rain, the bankside nettles, where I do the water flow Pooh sticks, were too This 159 page book is the first of a series being a compendium of current and historical information about the watermills tall for me to throw in the sticks and and their occupants over the ages, from Domesday Book to see them arrive at the 10 metre onwards. It is based on the research of Tony and Mary Yoward point, so I waded in and followed the (who spoke at one of the very early meetings of the Trust) and sticks down. Being in the river (just brings together information on 200 mills or mill sites using a downstream from the Paper Mill Lane bridge), I noticed masses range of archival data with details of the lives of the millers. of caddis cases (Agapetus) on stones at the sides and further It is fully referenced by notes and has an index of names and investigation revealed two well grown River Limpets. These may details on over 70 mills. Introductory information is given on have survived at the edge in what was the most heavily polluted the Hampshire Mills Group, the structure and functioning of part of the river from the 2011 incident or might have survived in a watermill (with diagrams and glossary of terms) as well as the side stream at the back of the engineering workshop. individual accounts of each mill site. There are some familiar mills like those at Alresford and Winchester, Botley and The stretch of the Wey where it flows under the railway line to Wickham mills on the Meon and Langstone water and windmill emerge in Ashdell Road, Alton before going online through King’s at the top of Langstone harbour and I was intrigued to see my Pond has long been a good habitat for River Limpets and they namesakes, the Chatfields involved traditionally live feeding on algae on spring-washed chalk lumps as millers in Emsworth and near the undercut bank where there is spring action. During the Bedhampton in the late 19th early part of the year this stretch of the Wey unusually dried up and early 20th centuries. having no flow either from upstream or bank-fed springs as the water table dropped and the bed dried. River Limpets are animals Volume 2 on the mills of associated with permanently cool running water and they do not the west of the county have particularly thick shells. Whilst attending a pollution incident has just been published with the Environment Agency (murky water issuing from one and is the same price but of the drainage pipes that did not relate to surface run-off and if both Volumes 1 and rain) I took the opportunity of the return of water to this stretch 2 are ordered together to investigate the situation for limpets. Much to my delight and from their website www. surprise, when searching on spring-washed clean chalk stones, hampshiremills.org you there was an abundance of juvenile limpets. How did they survive can save £4.00 both books the drought? Or was it the eggs that took the animals through the £22.98 and £3.00 postage. dry phase. June Chatfield

Page 3 Stone Loach (Barbatula barbatula)

This is one of the minor fish that lives under stones or weeds in streams or rivers across Britain and Europe, except the far north. It occurs in the northern Wey where I have found it over the last 30 years at the emergence of the Wey under the railway embankment in Ashdell Road, Alton. It fees on bottom invertebrates at night and hides under stones in the daytime. The Stone Loach can be up to 10 cms long, it has barbell tentacles “Mistletoe on lime trees by the northern Wey in the around the mouth, a rounded head with the eye high up and the grounds of Molson-Coors brewery, Alton. The clumps are tail or caudal fin is truncated. It takes two to three years to grow visible once the tree leaves have fallen. Let us know where to maturity and can live for eight years. This photograph was taken from at the Ashdell Road site. else you may find this plant on trees along the Wey. Phot: June Chatfield” June Chatfield

Stone Loach from the northern Wey at Alton. Phot: June Chatfield China-mark Moths Many insect orders, bugs, beetles, flies, dragonflies, damsel flies, mayflies and alderflies have aquatic larval stages, while their adults have wings and live out of water, which is how they migrate from one water body to another. The lepidoptera or butterflies and moths have only one group, the china- mark moths with an aquatic larval stage. There are several Freshwater Sponge at genera in the family Pyralidae but their aquatic larvae are easily overlooked. The adults, like mayflies, have only a short Waggoners Wells life on land, enough time to mate and lay eggs. Their eggs are deposited on the undersides of floating pond plants, especially In the natural history gallery at Haslemere Educational Museum water lilies and Floating Pondweed (Potamogeton natans). is a dried specimen of a freshwater sponge that was collected at When hatched, the larvae burrow into the leaf tissues and feed Waggoners Wells lakes in 1949. This specimen was prepared by the but when ready to pupate they cut pieces of leaf and attach then Curator John Clegg who was a prominent freshwater biologist them to their backs for protection as they as they spend the and author of two books by Warne on freshwater life in their next stage stuck on the undersides of floating leaves. Some Wayside and Woodland and Pond Life in the popular Observer’s were found on a field meeting of the Alton Natural History Book series. Stephen Frye of the Wey Valley Fisheries Consultative Society to Swelling Hill Pond, on 11 May 2011. Association lives in Haslemere and when he brought in some details on their Association for me, he spoke of an open day at Waggoners June Chatfield Wells. This I was not able to attend, but I showed him the freshwater sponge on display and asked him to keep an eye out for it as I had often wondered if it was still there. It is also green in life as it hosts symbiotic green algae and I was familiar with this in the Glamorgan Canal at Whitchurch, Cardiff when I worked there in the 1970s. To my delight Stephen came in the next week with his camera and a photograph of something attached to a branch (as our museum specimen was) and yes, this was it, re-found after over 60 years. It was dead, unfortunately, as it was no longer green. Larva of China-mark moth on leaf of Floating Pond Weed Freshwater Sponge from at Swelling Hill Pond, Four Marks. Phot: June Chatfield Waggoner’s Wells lakes on display at Haslemere Above right The adult moth. from ‘Life in Ponds and Educational Museum. Phot: Streams’ by W. Furneaux, Longmans, Green and Co. June Chatfield Impression 1919.

Page 4 amount of pollution present. The larval presence of certain species Caddisflies is a useful marker to the purity of the water and levels of specific pollutants such as pesticides can be analysed in the body tissue of adults. A thoroughly fascinating insect! (Order: Trichoptera) Kevin Stevens If whilst out near water - and the Northern Wey is no exception - after dusk or at night, you may be lucky enough to Note: The drawings below are from ‘Life in Ponds and Streams’ by see a Caddisfly in the light of your torch. You could be forgiven W. Furneaux, Longmans,Green and Co. Impression 1919. if you thought you had glimpsed a rather drab moth. The two insects look very similar and in some ways they share similar lifestyles. But there are distinct differences: Caddisflies belong to the taxonomic Order of Trichoptera; moths belong to the Order of Lepidoptera. The two orders are closely linked taxonomically though there are differences. Trichoptera means hairy wings, and here is the first difference over a moth, which has scaled wings and not hairs. A closer examination of a caddisfly will also reveal very long antennae and long slender legs. Upon these will always be found spurs in varying numbers on the three tibiae. These are specific, and significant, as they are a useful guide to species identification. Adult caddisfly A selection of larval case show- They are generally nocturnal and tend to spend the daylight hours (note the long antennae and ing the different materials used. hiding in vegetation. They emerge after dusk, their flimsy wings spurs on the legs.) allowing them a weak flight above the water, where they will mate and sometimes feed. Most caddisfly species have very weak mouthparts, another difference from moths, which does allow some uptake of water or nectar, though many species cannot feed at all, emerging from their larval stage as a winged adult simply to breed. If the adult caddisfly strikes one as being rather dull and plain, with a rather uninteresting lifestyle, then their young larval offspring living beneath the water certainly make up for it. The Larva with case made from A caddis larva. larvae of some species are caseless and free living stones. (Rhyacophilidae), looking much like long legged caterpillars crawling amongst the stones and vegetation of the river bed. Others make fine, intricate, silken nets to catch minute particles of food in the flowing water currents (Hydropsychoidea). Some Swan Mussels from a fish species will utilise several lifestyles through different moults, starting as caseless larvae and making ‘purse cases’ from silk and stock pond in Hampshire debris as they enlarge (Hydroptilidae). Others are the true architects of the animal kingdom Two co-incidences prompted a visit to fishing ponds at (Limnephiloidea), making very distinct cases, often in incredible East near Alton (SU/753376) on a grey day of 17 minute detail with extraordinary designs. Depending on the February 2011. First, a casual remark from John Glasgow of the family they may be detrivores, carnivores or herbivores. Conchological Society that he would rather like to find some shells The cases are made from particles, or vegetation, found amongst of the Swan Mussel (Anodonta cygnaea), having seen fragments the river bed and are held together by silk. Sticks, reeds, stones, of the smaller Duck Mussel (A. anatina) in the northern Wey on sand and shells are all common items used, either individually or the field meeting in 2010. The Swan Mussel lives in lakes and large together, often neatly arranged in unique symmetrical patterns so ponds rather than rivers. Shortly after this, a brief note with a specific that they are an aid to species identification. They vary in photograph of Swan Mussel shells on mud was put through my size from 6 – 65mm, and shape: ranging from hexagonal, circular, door by Jane Hurst, Alton’s local historian. Following a historical square or even spiral. Many species will ‘simply’ cover themselves interest in a visit to King John’s Hill at she had seen in sticks or chewed vegetation, often with two or more distinct a dried up pond with numerous shells on the mud, hence the longer pieces, a useful deterrent to being eaten by fish, the longer photograph with location and “thought you might be interested” pieces sticking in the fish mouths. on a note from Jane. This was definitely to be investigated and Caddisflies have a complete metamorphosis. After between five John was to obtain his Swan Mussels in the process, as many as he and seven larval stages, or instars, they will pupate within their wanted as it happened and all in good condition. It was as well that existing cases or build new ones in the caseless species. From two of us went as, trying to get a better camera angle in photo- within the pupa the larva will transform into a winged adult, graphing the scene, I ended up rather deeper in the mud (Gault eventually cutting its way out and swimming up to the surface or Clay) than planned and after much twisting of Wellington boots to crawling out of the water on nearby vegetation. release suction, had to be hauled out! Aside from the fascination with their larval lifestyles, caddisflies East Worldham, a small settlement three miles from Alton on the are also excellent indicators of water habitat quality. Many B3004, is on the top of the Upper Greensand escarpment, a porous species have very strict ecological parameters to exist in, varying rock with many cracks and joints. This rests conformably on the greatly in the amount of dissolved oxygen, acidity and chemistry Gault Clay, an impervious deposit, hence the active spring-line that they can tolerate. As such they can be a useful guide to the Page 5 ...continues page 6. along the foot of the Upper Greensand escarpment. Between Wyck from lake to lake. The free-swimming larva is called a glochidium. It and East Worldham the spring source has been exploited by the is thought that the sperm is brought into the mantle cavity and gills digging of a series of fishing ponds. King John’s Hill on the other through respiration of the female mussel. The fertilised eggs (there side of the pond is also of Upper Greensand and in geographi- are many of them) are retained in a brood chamber in the mantle cal terms an outlier or island of younger rock (Upper Greensand) cavity where they are nourished and the embryo secretes a bivalve surrounded by older rock (Gault Clay): both are of Cretaceous age shell with hooks on the edge and a primitive byssus thread to help formed over 65 million years ago. The very humpy nature of the attachment. When hatched and expelled the glochidia attach to fields below the escarpment is due to post-glacial land-slipping fish stirring up the bottom. Anodonta attaches on to the skin and when permafrost melted and the clay acted as a lubricant as well fins where they form cysts while glochidia of Painter’s Mussels Unio as an aquitard preventing water drainage after the Ice Age. It was attach to the gills of fish. Some fishermen do not like Swan Mussels a similar scenario further along the same escarpment that was the because of scars to the outside of the fish. During attachment to cause of the dramatic landslip at in 1774 graphically de- fish the larval stage undergoes developmental changes that enable scribed by Gilbert White in The Natural History of (White, it to live a free-living existence after about 10 weeks on the fish. 1789). The details of life cycle and illustration of glochidium larva are from The fishing ponds are reached by a public footpath from East Parker and Haswell (1897). Once dropped off the fish, Swan Mussels Worldham to Binswood. When we arrived a flock of about 40 live a normal free-living sedentary life on the bottom as filter feeders Canada Geese were grazing on the grass. It was the small end pond partly buried in the mud, but their only chance to extend their range (south) that had been drained exposing black mud with trickles of is through the parasitic larval stage hitching a lift on fish that swim spring water but no standing water. The Swan Mussels were not around, transporting the mussels to new ground away from the par- difficult to find and from the edge we counted about 200 dead ent colony. Fishermen further assist unknowingly when they move shells (paired valves) on the surface of the mud, fairly freshly dead fish stock around and also by creating new ponds as in this situation. as they still had the periostracum or varnish layer of shell intact. References Going in to retrieve some shells, fragments of flesh were found Parker, T J & Haswell, W A, 1897. A Text-book of Zoology, attached to the adductor muscle scars and also soft parts of di- Macmillan, London gestive gland near the umbone (apex of the shell), suggesting that White, G, (1789 and many later editions to date). The Natural they had died relatively recently. However there was no evidence of History and Antiquities of Selborne. Many publishers. predation from damaged shells and the situation seemed to be one of an undisturbed mass death assemblage. February had followed a hard winter with snow on the ground for nearly the whole of December, especially in the hilly country of the Hampshire Hangers. It is curious that Grey Herons, Crows, Foxes and Badgers living in the area had not investigated this mass kill of potential food with the dead mussels having the valves gaping open and a shell that they could break into. I was told by Alec Baker of the Oakhanger Angling Club and NWT that the small stock pond had been drained to remove fish, presumably in the summer or autumn of 2010 before snow fall at the end of November that persisted through most of December. The whole population of mussels in this small fish stock pond was exposed to air, so unable to breathe and they may also have been Drained stock pond at East Drained stock pond at East affected by frost, from which they would normally be protected in Worldham with shells of Swan Worldham, looking towards deep water where the temperature remains at 4C without freezing. Mussels in the foreground mud. King John’s Hill, with shells of A sample of shells taken home was measured and growth rings Swan Mussels in the mud in the counted. They ranged from 95-164 mm in length but most were foreground about 150 mm pointing to a more or less single age population of 15-18 years of age judging from the growth rings. There were no really small mussels and only a few smaller ones (95-114mm) of 9-10 years of age. The majority would appear to have been ac- cidentally introduced on a single occasion in their larval parasitic stage attached to the skin or gills of the same batch of fish placed in the stock pond. The few smaller ones could have been from a later addition of fish. Alec Baker informs me that he has seen shells of Swan Mussels at Pond nearby (SU/754377 ) that is also managed by the Oakhanger Angling Club. Swan Mus- sels in closed bodies of water rely on attaching to fish hosts for Swan Mussel (Anodonta cygnea) Glochidium larva transport as well as nourishment in the early stages of the life on surface of mud history and also on human activities in moving infected fish stock (Parker and Haswell) 1897 This newsletter is available in colour to members as a PDF. If you would prefer to receive your copy electronically, please email the Secretary, Gill Glover, at [email protected]. NOTE: A broadband internet connection is recommended as the PDF may otherwise take a long time to download. Page 6 “Designed and printed by East Hampshire District Council on behalf of The Northern Wey Trust”