There was quite a crowd on the banks of the Basingstoke Canal. A
dragonfly enthusiast friend had been so incensed by a piece in a local
paper that the Canal was a health hazard and an eyesore that he had
announced that at a given time, he would pull himself a pint of canal
water, and drink it. The paper had said that there were cases of dogs
that had fallen into the canal and died, because it was so polluted. Far
from dying, my friend simply quenched his thirst, and as far as I know
lived on for many years after this experience.
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| View from Pondtail Bridge, Fleet, 1972 after a dry summer |
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| The same view after the removal of many shrubs in 1974 |
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| More shrub cleared, 1975. Note increased usage of footpath |
It was in 1970 that I first became aware of the Basingstoke Canal. I had just taken up the post of Keeper of Biology in the Hampshire County Museum Service, and one of my projects was to organise a natural history gallery for the Willis Museum in Basingstoke. I wanted to feature a wetland site, and the Basingstoke Canal seemed promising. I first gained access to it at Odiham, and it took me several hours, armed with a machete to make any progress at all along the towpath. The main channel was almost dry, totally choked with
Glyceria maxima, Reed Sweet-grass, so much so that there was little hope of much interesting natural history for my gallery project.
Over the weeks, I explored the whole of the Canal, and the section that survives east of the Greywell Tunnel proved to be a gem of a wetland site. West of the Greywell Tunnel, the western end of which has collapsed there is little water. Sections have been filled in and built on. Quite a length now lies beneath the M3 motorway. It is an exercise in archaeology and map reading to find the line of the Canal in Basingstoke itself where the wharf now lies beneath the bus station.
For anyone wishing to study the fauna and flora of an inland waterway, the Basingstoke Canal offered so much. In a short stretch close to Farnborough Aerodrome, the majority of the British dragonfly fauna could be found including the only site known then for the beautiful, and incredibly rare
Somatochlora metallica, the Brilliant Emerald Dragonfly. Luckily this species has increased its range considerably in southeastern England since 1970. In the eastern Hampshire section, the range of aquatic plants was considerable and included many rare
Potamogeton species (Pondweeds) as well as
Hydrochaeris morsus ranae, Frogbit and
Stratiotes aloides, the Water Soldier. The perfection of the zonation from a rich bank flora through to floating and submerged species was unique in my experience.
