The Kentish Stour Countryside Project volunteers were out last week, clearing up the river bank from Fordwich to Westbere. The group found all manner of items from car tyres to a shopping trolly. The work, linked with the Clean Kent Campaign, has helped to tidy up a beautiful part of countryside and a lovely stretch of the river Great Stour. The clean Kent campaign was launched in 2004 with the aims of:

The volunteers started at Fordwich, walking towards Westbere filling up bags and leaving them to pick up on the way back. Pulling out some of the larger items was a bit of a challenge, due to the steep slopes of the river bank and the large numbers of stinging nettles!. Simon Houstoun, a volunteer said "I was amazed how much skill and knowledge was needed to retrieve rubbish, on the task."

Whilst stopping for lunch they were amazed to see one of the full bags they had left to collect later, floating down the river past them. Someone must have thrown the bag into the river on their way past. Luckily the bag was retrieved further down the river. It wasn’t all rubbish, a small fish called a lamprey was found, hiding in some mud in one of the tyres that was pulled out.