Now We Are Severn released by Shrewsbury's Up Sewage Creek

The Shrewsbury river campaigners Up Sewage Creek have released a 10-minute film about the River Severn and their work to protect it: We Are Severn.

Shropshire Live says:

The film, which has been produced by award winning Shropshire arts organisation MediaActive Projects, is a collaboration between local people and creative practitioners designed to raise awareness about the state of the Severn. 

It features video footage, animation, and interviews with local river campaigners talking about the Severn and why it is so important to Shrewsbury. 

Up Sewage Creek won't allow the video to be embedded on other sites – good luck with the campaign, guys – but if you click on my photo of the Severn in Shrewsbury above you will to taken to it on YouTube.

Local campaigner wants to see the River Teme given rights

The Teme at Leintwardine

A Shropshire campaigner says the River Teme should be granted legal rights because it has become "unwell".

Inspired by the way the River Wye has become the first river in the UK to be given cross-border rights covering it from source to sea, Sam Jones has started a petition which has so far been signed by more than a thousand people.

Sam Jones told BBC News:

"Over the years I've seen decline. I've been a swimmer, kayaked in the past, I'm an angler… you notice things around you.

"It's 30 years since it's been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest... we ought to bring the focus back to what we have on our doorsteps.

"As an angler, you see changes to insect hatches, there's less rising trout, there's fewer roach… invertebrate changes, biodiversity changes along the riverbank."

The Teme rises south of Newtown in Powys, then flows through Knighton, Ludlow and Tenbury Wells before joining the Severn south of Worcester. It forms the border between England and Wales for several miles around Knighton.

I'm not sure how a river would enforce its rights, and think our moral thinking is impoverished if we express it only in terms of individual rights. But if this move will help improve the health of the Teme, I can't find it in my heart to oppose it.

The man in a coracle who retrieved the ball from the Severn for Shrewsbury Town

Shrewsbury Town's old ground at Gay Meadow stood beside the Severn, so loose shots could end up in the river.

This Nationwide report from 1975 is about the man who retrieved the ball when they did.

Northwood Lane, Bewdley: The Elan Valley Aqueduct, The Singing Detective and Jonathan Meades

Fire broke out beside the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) bear Bewdley yesterday, reports the Shropshire Star. I don't know if it was caused by a spark from a train, but many preserved lines have gone over to diesel-only operation because of the tinder-dry state of lineside vegetation this summer.

This fire took place near Northwood Lane, which is a long road that runs beside the River Severn north of Bewdley. And this post  is about three things you can see along its course.

The first is an aqueduct that carries drinking water from the Elan Valley reservoir in Mid Wales over the River Severn on its way to the Frankley Reservoir in  Birmingham. This 73-mile pipeline, which opened in 1906, was a wonder of its day. 

You'll find it marked on the endpaper maps of many books about the Welsh Border, and I suspect it was the inspiration for the plot about a Shropshire reservoir being blown up by German spies in the first of Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine books, Mystery at Witchend.

You can see the Aqueduct over the Severn and the rails of the SVR in the photograph above. Now on to two television connections...

There is a station beside Northwood Lane, and it was used as a location for Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective. It's in the scene where the young Philip Marlowe returns to the Forest of Dean after his mother's death in London and is met by his father, who is played by Jim Carter. You can see a photo of them above along with photos photos of the station and level crossing.

And then there's Jonathan Meades...

You may remember his film Severn Heaven, which visited the Bewdley plotlands. This is an interwar community of some 160 self-built properties, which appears to be under threat at the moment. 

I had a wander round it some years ago myself, getting off the train at Northwood Halt.