IN the presence of teal, geese, lapwings and a white egret, the Bishop’s Fen was officially dedicated yesterday as plans were announced for the creation of a £38m Great North Fen in a watery stretch of south Durham.

The creation of the fenland along the banks of the River Skerne to the east of Newton Aycliffe is one of the long term goals of the Brightwater project which is now nearing the end of its five-year programme.

“The Skerne was Europe’s seventh most polluted watercourse in the 1970s,” said Brightwater manager Paul Black. “It isn’t anymore, and this latest chapter has been all about how you bring it back to life.”

All the guests at the ceremony to dedicate the Bishop's Fen near Bishop Middleham, with, in the front, Jim Cokill of Durham Wildlife Trust, Paul Black of Brightwater and the Archdeacon of Auckland, the Rev Rick SimpsonIt is all about returning the landscape to how it was 300 years ago, when local antiquarian Robert Surtees (1779-1834) complained that “the carrs” area of south Durham was “a dreary morass” covered in “these unprofitable swamps”. In his lifetime, the river was canalised, making it run straighter and faster so the peaty land around it drained and became profitable for agriculture.

However, the 21st Century values the biodiversity that was lost by making the river efficient. It also sees that the old twists and turns of the river will help manage the flood risks for the East Coast Main Line and the A1(M) which run through the area – ironically, guests attending yesterday’s ceremony were delayed as the A1 was closed in both directions due to flooding – and for the downstream town of Darlington.

Yesterday, the first modern carr, the Bishop’s Fen, was dedicated by the Reverend Rick Simpson, the Archdeacon of Auckland. It is 218 hectares to the south of Bishop Middleham in which scrapes in the pastures and meanders in the river have been created.

The archdeacon said: “A project on this scale is so exciting so I want to wish everyone involved in it every success.”

The Bishop’s Fen is the first part of the Great North Fen which will stretch from Bishop Middleham down to Preston-le-Skerne, near Newton Aycliffe, in an area known as “the Isles” because all the old farms are built on islands which stand just above the high watermark of the floodlands.

When Brightwater began in 2018, it was imagined that it would leave behind a 500 hectare Great North Fen by 2030, but yesterday it was announced that this is to be increased to 850 hectares.

Cutting a willow to symbolise the opening of the Bishop's Fen with Andy Wadds and Jim Cokill, both of the Durham Wildlife Trust, on either side of the Rev Rick Simpson, Archdeacon of Auckland, armed with the lopers“It is designed to mimic what was there before – the Skerne was a load of meandering channels across the flat, wet land,” said Jim Cokill, director of the Durham Wildlife Trust which is the lead partner in the Brightwater project. “It will probably cost £38m, which is an enormous amount of money, but it is probably going to be worth £130m in grants for things like biodiversity and nutrient neutrality, so they are no longer going to be unprofitable swamps.”

This is going to be a boon for waterbirds and plants.

“If we create the habitats, nature will come,” said Jim. “Some of the original plant communities cling on in ditches along the East Coast Main Line and we can use them to repopulate the wetlands we create.”

While the number of birds is already increasing, it is the prospect of the returning plants that most excites the naturalists.

A ditch called Railway Stell West beside the East Coast Main Line has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest because it hosts rare survivors of the assemblage of plants that grew here before the 18th Century canalisation. Plants like common meadow rue, water crowfoot, water plantain, water violet, water horsetail, celery-leaved crowfoot, sharp-flowered rush, great spearwort and great pond sedge – all of which used to be common in the North East but are now hardly ever found.

The Brightwater project is so-called because the Skerne’s name comes from an Old Norse word “skirr”, meaning “bright and shining”. It is appropriate that it is creating carrs which has its origins in another Old Norse word, “kjarr”, meaning "marsh overgrown with brushwood”.

The Brightwater AnthologyBrightwater started with £3.3m of Lottery money and has brought together water companies, local authorities, landowners, environmental agencies, community groups as well as wildlife organisations. It has been out in the community, organising archaeological digs, creating village atlases, plotting self-guided walks and town trails, and running training courses, photography competitions and even compiling an anthology of writing about the Skerne.

“It has been a huge project,” said Paul Black. “We have worked with thousands and thousands of local people, raising awareness of nature and what we have on our doorstep. We’ve had 19 workstreams, 50 projects and in six years, £5m has been spent making a real difference to this area, and the Great North Fen will be its legacy.”