Clehonger Waterfall

Although surrounded by hills (e.g. Malvern Hills, Black Mountains, and Shropshire Hills), Herefordshire itself has a gentle undulating landscape. Consequently, there are limited opportunities for waterfalls in the County.

Clehonger is a large village (population > 1000) a few miles outside Hereford has one of the few Herefordshire waterfalls.

Photo 1: Clehonger Waterfall

We recently did the Clehonger Waterfall Loop walk with friends starting in the village itself, heading north following the Cage Brook (with a view of the waterfall, Photo 1) to Ruckhall. The path follows the River Wye for a short way (narrow path with steps) before returning over farmland back to the starting point (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Clehonger Waterfall Loop

The ground was very muddy in parts and the local farmer(s) seemed to have a penchant for padlocking gates. Nevertheless, a very interesting yet moderate ramble through a variety of landscapes. A short video of Clehonger waterfall is included below ...

Video 1: Clehonger Waterfall on the Cage Brook (November 2024)

I would have got closer but the ground was very muddy and it was a social walk. Although not large (I would guess 3 to 4 metres high), it was a rather pleasing and somewhat unexpected sight (and site). 

The Cage Brook is a nutrient-rich (i.e. polluted) tributary of the River Wye. Its confluence with the River Wye is one of the testing sites (U066) for the Citizen Science project, The Wye Alliance.

Figure 2: Location of Citizen Science Test Site U066

Figure 3 illustrates the very high orthophosphate concentrations found consistently in Cage Brook. Any value above 0.1 ppm is considered polluting.

 

Figure 3: Orthophosphate Levels (ppm) at Site U066

Cage Brook traverses a largely agricultural landscape where crops such as maize and potatoes are grown. This leads to another source of pollution -  soil run-off. Figure 4 records the Secchi Tube turbidity values at Site U066. In a previous post, I noted turbidities >10 were stressful to aquatic life while values >100 were unsafe. 

Figure 4: Turbidity Values (Secchi Tube) at Site U066

High turbidity is associated with the winter months when the fields are more likely to be bare and rainfall is highest. When a farmer loses topsoil, he is losing his biggest asset. So you would expect the farmer to take measures to protect his most valuable property, the soil, by planting winter crops and leaving a 2-metre or greater grass margin along the brook edge. The farmer, or farmers, around the Cage Brook clearly thought otherwise as the fields were bare and ploughed right up to the brook edges.

Placards and notices claiming NO FARMERS, NO FOOD are plastered all over the countryside and appear whenever the farmers protest and demonstrate.

Photo 2: Farmer Protests (h/t Farmers Weekly)

Perhaps we need another meme: NO SOIL, NO FOOD

I don't want to be unfair to farmers. They have a difficult job and there are lots of issues over which they have no control: low prices paid by supermarkets for their produce, climate change, poor management of subsidies by Governments. But they could help themselves a little bit by minimising topsoil run-off which will also save them money (lower fertilizer costs, higher crop yields).