Out of the 240 chalk streams globally, 160 are (or were) in England.
For a moment, I thought I heard a splosh and the whip of a fishing rod. But how? Ankle deep in dusty soft leaf litter, several yards down in the waterless bed of a dried up chalk stream, I craned my ears. There it was again. More of a splish, this time, or was it a wish just uttered, by the trees. They swayed in a gust of late summer wind, and I swayed with them.
There was someone there. An old man. He was sitting bolt upright on the bank just beside me, with crystal clear water lapping at his leather boots. He was smoking a pipe, and holding a fishing rod. And he was swinging it in, right past my nose, the most beautiful fish I'd ever seen. A dark silvery torpedo shaped body with proud fin, hoisted and shimmering, in the setting sun.
A fish! I exclaimed. Aye the old man muttered, from behind his puff of Parson's Pleasure. Just a grayling. It was so beautiful. Where did it come from I said? The wind gusted again in the overhanging trees, and they swayed. Swayed with what this time I knew was a kindly form of long-suffering impatience. Grayling used to live right there, where you are standing now. And many others like them. Mind you, there was a lot more life about when I was around, in those clear flowing waters.
Before he and the fish vanished, I saw its iridescent soul rise up, into one of the trees. And I realised there, it will have to stay, leaf like, waiting with its kin, until the chalk stream returns.
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We recorded the natural white noise created by these trees a few months ago in the countryside near Newport in Essex. It was a peaceful place, with a tractor tilling a field in the far distance. The trees grew along the banks of what we later found in bygone days used to be a chalk stream. We think of it as a barometer of human impact, and turn to listen to the wisdom of trees.
Chalk streams are rare and fascinating. Find out more.
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158 That edgeland feel along the Thames near Tilbury Docks (sleep safe)
157 Immersed in Bayford Woods (an ear-witness account)
156 Sheltered under night rain (sleep safe and high definition sound)
155 Out on Cooden Beach at night - part 1 (sleep safe)
154 An Exeter garden awakes
153 Freezing January rain under Britain’s highest pylon (sleep safe)
152 High above Folkestone beach
151 Dusky echoes in the Forest of Dean
150 Looking down on Coldingham Sands (January special 2 / 4)
149 Dawn birdsong from Derbyshire (a brighten up January special 1/4)
148 Suffolk Wood (part 13) - 8am to 9am
147 The barn high up the moor (sleep safe - atmospheric with headphones)
146 Fresh air along the Creel Path
145 Curling folding breaking waves (part 2 in hi-def sound)
144 Garden beside meadow in the Derbyshire hills
143 Lullaby waves by Nothe Sea Fort (sleep safe)
142 All aboard the Night Riviera (source of dark brown soporific noise)
141 Soft land murmuring - Wooler, Northumberland
140 Fishing village harbour at night (sleep safe)
139 Old rafters brewing storm
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