Older residents in the village will remember the excitements of ‘the
Wherry breaking’ each Autumn as the South Winterborne suddenly
resumed its flow after weeks of being perfectly dry. In recent years
this pattern of behavior has been interrupted by the activities of
Wessex Water, but this year the classic flow pattern has been
evident. It is well known that the flow in the stream is controlled
by the annual rise and fall of the aquifer, the ground water level
being easily available online for the borehole at Ashton. After
falling at around 5cm per day throughout the summer months the rate
dropped in August to 2cm per day and the stream dried up at Ashton,
though there was still a small flow through the main channel in
Martinstown. The ground water fall of 1cmpd then continued until the
21st October, with the stream bed being dry. On the 22nd
of October the ground water movement reversed direction suddenly with
a rise of 5cm. And low and behold, there was again a small but steady
flow through the village, The Wherry had broken.
video. John M Elliott
