A section of the River Chess which runs along the top of Chesham Moor nearby Moor Road has been the subject of a very successful restoration project.

Before the project could start on site, an immense amount of planning and consultation work had to be carried out to ensure all of the appropriate permissions were in place, but after some initial delays, the scheme finally got the ‘green light’, and the ‘all important’ funding. This preparation was steered by Adrian Porter, who is a Chalk Streams Project Officer with the Chilterns National Landscape Team.

The overall purpose of the scheme was:

• to move the river channel away from the residential concrete boundary wall, over towards the Moor Playing Fields allowing the creation of a new naturalised meandering channel, much more typical of a chalk stream.
• to replace the existing bridge which provided poor access from Moor Road to the Playing Fields, with a safer, step-free access across the channel for pedestrians and those with mobility impairments.
• to provide a new sloped access-ramp at the confluence of the restored channel and the main river, creating safer access to the river for families and school groups that frequently use the area to carry out their educational studies about rivers. 
• to create a sustainable reed-bed drainage pond to intercept poor quality rainfall run-off from the road-side gullies on Bois Moor Road, substantially reducing the risk of pollutants entering the channel.

The site work begins

The Site Work began in Autumn 2024 when the main Contractor, Maydencroft, fenced off the area to ensure that members of the public could not gain access, and it was then that the Chesham Environmental Group (CEG), with its experience in carrying out sensitive river management was asked to get involved in the project.

CEG involvement

The first key task we undertook was to help install wildflower matting impregnated with a large range of wildflower seeds.

This was a revolutionary method which ensured the restoration and maximum biodiversity of the river. Unfortunately, this work was carried during a hot and very dry period and it only survived due to an emergency rota system which CEG operated, involving watering the seeded matting every other day for three weeks to ensure the seeds germinated and become rooted in the riverbank. Perhaps, not surprisingly, Byron set up a spreadsheet where the regular volunteers could sign up to doing as many ‘watering’ shifts as they were able to fit in.

Shortly after the matting was installed Adrian Porter organised the supply of additional wetland species of wildflower ‘plug plants’, including purple loosestrife, marsh skullcap, hemp agrimony, marsh marigolds and hard rush which we added to the riverbank, to compliment the transplanting of yellow flag iris plants from the downstream channel.

The scheme has already settled down well and looks as natural as the design originally hoped would be the case. Well done Adrian!

We are scheduled to help with the removal of the protective chestnut paling fencing later in 2025. It will be rolled up and collected by our Town Council and stored for reuse on other projects.

As with all river related projects, it will be important to carry out sensitive management in the future maintenance programme which Adrian will provide for the CEG team.