Bourne Rivulet

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The Bourne Rivulet is a river in the English county of Hampshire. It is a tributary of the River Test.

The Bourne Rivulet (known simply as 'The Bourne' locally) is a seasonal chalk stream that rises and falls with the natural water table in the area. It usually rises in January and flows until around August each year. It normally runs from the village of Upton and flows through the villages of Hurstbourne Tarrant, St Mary Bourne and Hurstbourne Priors before joining with the River Test near Tufton.

Due to water extraction at the Vitacress Salads plant, the river ceases to be seasonal below it.

[edit] In Literature

The Bourne was celebrated in a much loved book by Harry Plunket Greene, "Where the Bright Waters Meet", in which he described it as "unquestionably the finest trout stream in the south of England."^[1]

Fans of this book, which chronicles the author's fishing experiences on the Bourne between 1902 and 1912, still come from all over the world to fish here.

[edit] Environmental Issues

Although the river still produces some large wild brown trout, the discharges from a watercress and salad packing plant at St Mary Bourne have led to a marked reduction in its invertebrate population (source: Environment Agency), especially in its upper reaches, and a bitter battle has raged since the mid 1980's between Vitacress Salads Ltd and those trying to protect the stream.

Recently Vitacress have added extra cleaning processes to remove some of the pollutants produced by it processes. This has increased the biodiversity in the river. However, it still remains to be seen if this will lead to a resurgence in fish numbers. ^[2]