Riff Raff Diary – October 2016

Published on: 11 Oct, 2016
Updated on: 11 Oct, 2016

Riff Raff Cottage and Weir.

Riverbank tales from the local St Catherine’s lengthsman and weirkeeper

by Robert Craig

Now that the autumn equinox has passed and the daylight hours are growing shorter the character of the river is also changing. The mists are heavier over the meadows at dusk and the temperature is falling.

At St Catherines meadow, near the lock, the cattle have now been moved to alternative grazing and in their place roe deer can often be seen.

Roe deer on the towpath.

Overhead at this time the swallows and house martins are gathering in preparation for their long flight back to Africa and before long we should see visitors such as fieldfare from Northern Europe and Asia, and redwings from Scandinavia, arriving.

Redwing.

September was a busy month for me with a lot of mowing needed, the grass still making plenty of growth so the towpath, locks, moorings and Stonebridge Wharf were all mown.

Also, whilst I had the use of our flush-decked maintenance boat Swallow, I was able to trim the ends from the willows growing on the Guildford meads, raising them just enough so that boats (and boaters) can avoid getting tangled up in them.

Later on towards the end of the month we all got together to prepare Dapdune Wharf in Guildford for the annual Wey River Festival.

The River Wey Festival at Daphne Wharf in 2015. Picture by Derek Croucher.

The festival was very well attended and we were blessed with good weather. A great spectacle after dusk was the illuminated boat pageant.

The decorated boats headed upstream towards Millmead, turned, and headed back down to Dapdune. The flotilla for the second year running included music from The Croydon Steel Orchestra performing on one of our maintenance craft.

See you by the river.

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